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This  book  is  due  at  the  LOUIS  R.  WILSON  LIBRARY  o 
last  date  stamped  under  "Date  Due."  If  not  on  hold  it  ma 
renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  library. 

DATE                     RFT 
DUE                      RL1- 

DATE 
DUE 

•.»/.'  »" 

IES2S    0( 

1 1  y  m 

'■■ 

-•  1  ;5 

A  YEAR    FROM  A 

REPORTER'S    NOTE-BOOK 


BY 


RICHARD  HARDING  DAVIS,  F.R.G.S. 

AUTHOR   OF 

"THE  PRINCESS  ALINE"   "VAN  BIBBER,  AND  OTHERS" 

"  GALLEGHER,    AND     OTHER     STORIES  " 

"  SOLDIERS  OF  FORTUNE"  ETC. 


NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 
HAR  %    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1898 


Copyright,  1897,  by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


All  rights  reserved. 


v\kv    : 


TO 


CECIL    CLARK 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://archive.org/details/yearfromcorrespoOOdavi 


AUTHOR'S   NOTE 

The  events  I  have  tried  to  describe  in  this  book  occurred 
in  different  parts  of  the  world  between  the  months  of  May, 
1896,  and  June,  1897. 

Of  the  articles  and  letters  that  have  been  selected  to  fill  it, 
those  on  the  Coronation,  the  Inauguration,  and  the  Jubilee 
appeared  in  Harpers  Magazine,  the  one  on  the  Millennial 
Celebration  in  Hungary  in  Scribner  s  Magazine.  The  letters 
from  Cuba  were  written  to  the  New  York  Journal  while  I  was 
on  the  island  as  a  correspondent  of  that  paper,  and  were  later 
published  in  a  book  called  "Cuba  in  War-time."  Those 
used  here  were  loaned  through  the  courtesy  of  the  publisher, 
Mr.  Robert  Howard  Russell.  The  article  on  the  Greek- 
Turkish  war  is  made  up  of  one  which  appeared  in  Harper  s 
Magazine  and  of  letters  which  I  wrote  from  Turkey  and  Greece 
while  acting  as  war  correspondent  of  the  London   Times. 

Richard  Harding  Davis. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

The  Coronation 3 

The  Millennial  Celebration  at  Budapest  69 
Cuba  in  War-time  : 

i.  the  death  of  rodriguez    .....  99 

ii.  along  the  trocha 113 

The  Inauguration. 137 

With  the  Greek  Soldiers 193 

The  Queen's  Jubilee. 261 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE   CORONATION  PROCESSION  PASSING   THE   GREAT 
BELL 

OUTSIDE   MOSCOW 

THE    CZAR    IN    HIS    STATE    ENTRY    INTO    MOSCOW      . 

THE    CZARINA'S    CARRIAGE    IN    THE    STATE  PROCES- 
SION       

THE    CZAR    PLACES    THE    CROWN    ON    HIS    HEAD  .       . 

THE   CZAR    CROWNING    THE    CZARINA 

THE    ENTRANCE    TO    THE    HOUSES    OF    PARLIAMENT 

THE   PROCESSION    AT    THE    START 

GROUP  OF  NOBLES  IN  THE  COSTUME  OF  THE  FOUR- 
TEENTH   CENTURY 

THE    DEATH    OF    RODRIGUEZ    

REGULAR    CAVALRYMAN — SPANISH    ...... 

ONE    OF    THE   BLOCK-HOUSES . 

FOR   CUBA    LIBRE 

A    SPANISH    SOLDIER.       .......... 

THE    TROCHA . 

ONE    OF    THE    FORTS    ALONG   THE   TROCHA      .       .       . 

SPANISH    CAVALRY 

THE     VICE-PRESIDENT     TAKING     THE     OATH      OF 
OFFICE 

IN    THE   DIPLOMAT'S    GALLERY      ....... 

RETURNING    FROM    THE   CAPITOL 

REVIEWING    THE    PROCESSION    FROM    THE    STAND 
IN    FRONT    OF    THE    WHITE    HOUSE       .... 

AN    AMERICAN    BODY-GUARD 

EVZONES    LEAVING   VONITZA    FOR    SALAGORA        .       . 

THE    RECEPTION    TO    GARIBALDI    AT    CORFU    .       .       . 

ix 


Frontispiece 

ngp.  IO 

24 


32 
53 
60 
72 

84 

88 
100 
108 
114 
116 
118 
124 
128 
132 

138 
140 
156 

180 
188 
208 
210 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

DRAGGING   OFF    A    TURKISH    CANNON   ABANDONED 

AT   SAL  AGORA Facing  p.  21 6 

a  priest   of  the   greek   church    in    turkey 

surrounded  by  greek  soldiers    ....      "     2l8 
evzones    executing    their   national    dance, 

near  arta "      220 

an  american  war  correspondent  (john  bass)  ^ 

directing  the  fire  of  the  greeks  .     .     .  \  "     22t 

velestinos j 

an  encampment  of  greek  soldiers  ....  "  226 
firing  from  the  trenches  at  velestinos.     .       "      23o 

the  battle  of  velestinos "      234 

the  mountain  battery  at  velestinos  .  .  .  "  250 
the  staff-officers  of  the  indian  army  .  .  "  276 
the   queen   passing  the  devonshire  club  in 

st.  james's  street "      284 

the  queen  during  the  thanksgiving  service 

at  st.  Paul's "     288 

lord  roberts  of  kabul  and  kandahar  on  his 

CELEBRATED    PONY "  2g2 

LT.-COL.  THE    HON.   MAURICE    GIFFORD,   COMMAND- 
ING  THE    RHODESIAN    HORSE "  298 

MAHARAJAH    SIR    PETRAP    SINGH ,       .  "  302 


THE    CORONATION 


THE  CORONATION 


WE  started  for  Moscow  ten  days  be- 
fore the  date  set  for  the  corona- 
tion, leaving  Berlin  at  midnight,  and  when 
the  chief  of  the  wagon-lit  woke  us  at 
seven  the  next  morning  we  were  within 
fifteen  minutes  of  the  custom-house. 

It  was  raining,  and  outside  of  the  wet 
window-panes  miles  of  dark-green  grass 
were  drawn  over  little  hills  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  see.  No  houses,  no  people,  no 
cattle,  no  living  thing  of  any  kind  moved 
under  the  low  dark  skies  or  rose  from  the 
sodden  prairie. 

It  was  a  gloomy  picture  of  emptiness 
and  desolation,  a  landscape  without  char- 
acter or  suggestion,  and  as  I  surveyed  it 
sleepily  I  had   a  disappointed   feeling  of 


THE   CORONATION 

being  cheated  in  having  come  so  far  to 
find  that  the  Russian  steppes  were  merely 
our  Western  prairie.  But  even  as  this  was 
in  my  mind  the  scene  changed,  and  lived 
with  meaning  and  significance,  for  as  the 
train  rushed  on  there  rose  out  of  the  misty 
landscape  a  tall  white  pillar  painted  in 
black  stripes.  And  I  knew  that  it  sig- 
nalled to  Germany,  and  to  all  the  rest  of 
the  world,  "  So  far  can  you  go,  and  no 
farther,"  and  that  we  had  crossed  into 
the  domain  of  the  Czar.  It  must  be  a 
fine  thing  to  "  own  your  own  home,"  as 
the  real  -  estate  advertisements  are  con- 
stantly urging  one  to  do,  and  it  must  give 
a  man  a  sensation  of  pride  to  see  the  sur- 
veyors' stakes  at  the  corners  of  his  town 
site  or  homestead  holding,  and  to  know 
that  all  that  lies  within  those  stakes  be- 
longs to  him ;  but  imagine  what  it  must  be 
to  stake  out  the  half  of  Europe,  planting 
your  painted  posts  from  the  Arctic  Ocean 
to  the  Pacific,  from  the  borders  of  Austria 
and  Hungary  down  to  the  shores  of  the 


THE   CORONATION 

Black  Sea,  to  the  Pamirs,  in  the  very  face 
of  the  British  outposts,  and  on  to  China, 
saying,  as  it  were,  "  Keep  out,  please ;  this 
belongs  to  me." 

Trowbridge  came  with  me  because  he 
was  going  to  the  coronation  in  any  event, 
and  because  he  could  speak  Russian.  I 
had  heard  him  speak  French,  German, 
and  Italian  when  we  had  first  met  at  Flor- 
ence, and  so  I  asked  him  to  go  with  me  to 
Moscow  as  an  assistant  correspondent  of 
the  New  York  paper  I  was  to  represent. 
He  made  an  admirable  associate,  and  it 
was  due  to  him  and  his  persuasive  manner 
when  dealing:  with  Russian  officials  that  I 
was  permitted  eventually  to  witness  the 
coronation.  It  came  out  later,  however, 
that  his  Russian  was  limited  to  a  single 
phrase,  which  reflected  on  the  ancestors  of 
the  person  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  and 
as  I  feared  the  result  of  this,  I  forbade 
his  using  it,  and  his  Russian,  in  con- 
sequence, was  limited  to  "  how  much  ?" 
"tea,"  and  "caviare";    so  one  might  say 

5 


THE   CORONATION 

that  we  spoke  the  language  with  equal 
fluency. 

We  had  a  sealed  letter  from  the  Russian 
ambassador  at  Washington  to  the  custom- 
house people,  and  we  gave  it  to  a  very 
smart -looking  officer  in  a  long  gray  over- 
coat and  a  flat  white  cap.  He  glanced 
over  it,  and  over  our  heads  at  the  dismal 
landscape,  and  said,  "  We  expected  you  last 
night  at  one  o'clock,"  and  left  us  wonder- 
ing. We  differed  in  opinion  as  to  whether 
he  really  had  known  that  we  were  coming, 
or  whether  he  made  the  same  remark  to 
every  one  who  crossed  the  border,  in  order 
to  give  him  to  understand  that  he  and  his 
movements  were  now  a  matter  of  observa- 
tion and  concern  to  the  Russian  govern- 
ment. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Russian  govern- 
ment probably  takes  the  stranger  within 
its  gates  much  less  seriously  than  he  does 
himself.  The  visiting  stranger  likes  to  be- 
lieve that  he  is  giving  no  end  of  trouble  to 
a  dozen  of  the  secret  police ;  that,  sleeping 


THE    CORONATION 

or  waking,  he  is  surrounded  by  spies.  It 
adds  an  element  of  local  color  to  his  visit, 
and  makes  a  good  story  to  tell  when  he 
goes  home.  It  may  be  that  for  reasons  of 
their  own  the  Russian  police  help  to  en- 
courage him  in  this  belief,  but  that  they 
spy  upon  every  stranger  who  comes  to  see 
their  show  cities  seems  hardly  probable. 
And  if  the  stranger  thinks  he  is  being 
watched  he  will  behave  himself  just  as 
well  as  though  he  were  being  watched, 
and  the  result,  so  far  as  the  police  are  con- 
cerned, is  the  same. 

All  the  places  in  the  fast  trains  had  been 
engaged  for  many  days  before,  so  that  we 
were  forced  into  a  very  slow  one,  and  as 
the  line  was  being  constantly  cleared  to 
make  way  for  the  cars  of  imperial  blue 
that  bore  princes  and  archdukes  and  spe- 
cial ambassadors,  we  were  three  days  and 
three  nights  on  our  way  to  Moscow.  But 
it  was  an  interesting  journey  in  spite  of  its 
interminable  length,  and  in  spite  of  the 
monotonous  landscape  through  which  we 

7 


THE   CORONATION 

crawled ;  and  later,  in  looking  back  to  it 
and  comparing  its  lazy  progress  with  the 
roar  and  rush  and  the  suffocating  crowds 
of  the  coronation  weeks,  it  seemed  a  most 
peaceful  and  restful  experience. 

The  land  on  either  side  of  the  track  was 
as  level  as  our  Western  prairie,  but  broken 
here  and  there  with  woods  of  trembling 
birch  and  dark  fir  trees.  Scattered  vil- 
lages lay  at  great  distances  from  one  an- 
other and  almost  even  with  the  soil,  their 
huts  of  logs  and  mud  seldom  standing 
higher  than  one  story,  and  with  doors  so 
low  that  a  tall  man  could  enter  them  only 
by  stooping. 

Between  these  log  houses  were  roads 
which  the  snow  and  rain  had  changed  into 
rivers  of  mud,  and  which  seemed  to  lead  to 
nowhere,  but  to  disappear  from  off  the  face 
of  the  earth  as  soon  as  they  had  reached 
the  last  of  each  group  of  huts.  There  were 
no  stores  nor  taverns  nor  town-halls  visible 
from  the  car  windows,  such  as  one  sees  on 
our  Western  prairie.     Instead  there  were 


THE   CORONATION 

always  the  same  low -roofed  huts  of  logs 
painted  brown,  the  church  of  two  stories 
in  the  centre,  the  wide,  muddy  road  strag- 
gling down  to  the  station,  the  fields  where 
men  and  women  ploughed  the  rich  choco- 
late-colored soil,  and,  overhead,  countless 
flocks  of  crows  that  swept  like  black  clouds 
across  the  sky.  When  the  villages  ceased 
the  marshes  began,  and  from  them  tall 
heron  and  bittern  rose  and  sailed  heavily 
away,  answering  the  shrill  whistle  of  the 
locomotive  with  their  hoarse,  melancholy 
cries.  There  are  probably  no  two  kinds 
of  bird  so  depressing  in  every  way  as  are 
the  heron  and  the  crow,  and  they  seemed 
to  typify  the  whole  country  between  Alex- 
androv  and  Moscow,  where,  in  spite  of  the 
sun  that  shone  brilliantly  and  the  bright 
moist  green  of  the  grass,  there  was  no  sign 
of  movement  or  mirth  or  pleasure,  but,  in- 
stead, a  hopeless,  dreary  silence,  and  the 
marks  of  an  unceasing  struggle  for  the 
bare  right  to  exist. 

The    railroad    stations    were    the    only 

9 


THE   CORONATION 

bright  spots  on  our  horizon.  They  stood 
in  bunches  of  aspen  and  birch  trees,  sur- 
rounded by  neat  white  palings,  and  inside 
there  were  steaming  samovars  brilliantly 
burnished,  and  countless  kinds  of  hors 
(Toeuvres  in  little  dishes  on  clean  linen 
cloths,  and  innumerable  bottles  of  vodki, 
and  caviare  in  large  tin  buckets.  As  we 
never  knew  when  we  should  arrive  at  the 
next  station,  we  ate  something  at  each 
one,  in  order  that  we  might  be  sure  of 
that  much  at  least,  and,  in  consequence,  my 
chief  recollection  of  travelling  in  Russia 
is  hot  tea,  which  we  scalded  ourselves  in 
drinking,  and  cold  caviare,  and  waiters  in 
high  boots,  who  answered  our  inquiries  as 
to  how  long  the  train  stopped  by  exclaim- 
ing, "  Beefsteak,"  and  dashing  off  delight- 
edly to  bring  it. 

At  every  cross  -  road  there  were  little 
semi-official  stations,  with  the  fences  and 
gates  around  them  painted  with  the  black 
and  white  stripes  of  the  government,  the 
whole  in  charge  of  a  woman,  who  stood  in 


THE    CORONATION 

the  road  with  a  green  flag  held  out  straight 
in  front  of  her.  In  Russia  they  feed  the 
locomotive  engines  with  wood  as  well  as 
coal,  and  long  before  we  reached  a  station 
we  would  know  that  we  were  approaching 
it  by  the  piles  of  kindling  heaped  up  on 
either  side  of  the  tracks  for  over  a  mile, 
so  that  the  country  had  the  appearance  of 
one  vast  lumber-yard. 

These  piles  of  wood,  and  the  black  and 
white  striped  fences,  and  the  frequent 
spectacle  of  a  lonely  child  guarding  one 
poor  cow  or  a  half-starved  horse,  with  no 
other  sign  of  life  within  miles  of  them, 
were  the  three  things  which  seemed  to  us 
to  be  the  most  conspicuous  and  character- 
istic features  of  the  eight  hundred  miles 
that  stretch  from  the  German  border  to 
the  ancient  capital. 

All  that  we  saw  of  the  moujiks  was  at 
the  stations,  where  they  were  gathered  in 
silent,  apathetic  groups  to  watch  the  train 
come  and  go.  The  men  were  of  a  fine 
peasant  type,  big-boned  and  strong-look- 


THE   CORONATION 

ing,  with  sad,  unenlightened  faces.  They 
neither  laughed  nor  joked,  as  loungers 
around  the  railroad  stations  are  wont  to 
do  at  home,  but  stood  staring,  with  their 
hands  tucked  in  their  sleeves,  watching 
the  voyagers  with  a  humble,  distressed 
look,  like  that  of  an  uncomprehending 
dumb  animal. 

They  all  wore  long,  greasy  coats  of 
sheepskin,  cut  in  closely  at  the  waist  and 
spreading  out  like  a  frock  to  below  their 
knees  ;  on  their  feet  the  more  well-to-do 
wore  boots.  The  legs  and  feet  of  the 
others  were  wrapped  closely  in  long  linen 
bandages,  and  bound  with  thongs  of  raw- 
hide or  plaited  straw.  All  the  men  had 
the  inevitable  flat  cap,  which  seems  to  be 
the  national  badge  of  Russia,  and  their 
hair  was  long  and  clipped  off  evenly  in  a 
line  with  their  shoulders.  The  women 
dressed  exactly  like  the  men,  with  the 
same  long  sheepskin  coats  and  high  boots, 
so  that  it  was  only  possible  to  distinguish 
them  by  the  kerchief  each  wore  round  her 


THE   CORONATION 

head.  They  were  short  and  broad  in  stat- 
ure, and  so  much  smaller  than  their  hus- 
bands and  sons  that  they  seemed  to  belong 
to  another  race,  and  none  of  them  either  in 
face  or  figure  showed  any  marked  trace  of 
feminine  grace  or  beauty. 

Beyond  Poland  the  Hebrew  type,  there 
prevalent,  disappeared,  of  course,  and  the 
population  seemed  to  be  divided  into  two 
classes  —  those  that  wore  a  uniform  and 
those  that  wore  the  sheepskin  coat.  But 
the  greater  number  wore  the  uniform. 
There  were  so  many  of  these,  and  they 
crowded  each  other  so  closely,  that  all  the 
men  of  the  nation  seemed  to  spend  their 
time  in  saluting  somebody,  and  to  enjoy 
doing  it  so  much  that  when  no  one  passed 
for  some  time  whom  they  could  reasonably 
salute,  they  saluted  some  one  of  equal  rank 
to  themselves.  It  seemed  to  be  the  na- 
tional attitude. 

"In  this  country,"  a  man  told  us,  "it  is 
well  to  remember  that  every  one  is  either 
master  or  slave.  And  he  is  likely  to  take 
13 


THE   CORONATION 

whichever  position  you  first  assign  to  him." 
Stated  baldly,  that  sounds  absurd,  but  in 
practice  we  found  that  it  held  good  to  a 
certain  degree.  If  the  stranger  approach- 
es the  Russian  official — and  everybody  is 
some  sort  of  an  official — politely  and  hat 
in  hand,  the  Russian  at  once  assumes  an 
air  of  authority  over  him  ;  but  if  he  takes 
the  initiative,  and  treats  the  official  as  a 
public  servant,  he  accepts  that  position,  and 
serves  him  so  far  as  his  authority  extends. 
Moscow  proved  to  be  a  city  of  enormous 
extent,  spread  out  widely  over  many  low 
hills,  with  houses  of  two  stories  and  streets 
of  huge  round  cobble-stones.  The  houses 
are  of  stucco,  topped  with  tin  roofs  painted 
green;  and  the  bare  public  squares  and  lack 
of  municipal  buildings  and  of  statues  in 
public  places  give  Moscow  the  under- 
rated, uncared-for  look  of  Constantinople, 
or  of  any  other  half-barbaric  capital  where 
the  city  seems  not  to  have  been  built  with 
design,  but  to  have  grown  up  of  itself  and 
to  have  spread  as  it  pleased. 
14 


THE   CORONATION 

The  Kremlin,  of  which  so  much  was 
written  at  the  time  of  the  coronation,  is 
no  part  of  the  city  proper.  It  is  in  it,  but 
not  of  it.  It  is  a  thing  alone,  unlike  the 
rest  of  Moscow ;  nor,  indeed,  is  it  like  any 
other  city  in  the  world.  Its  great  jagged 
walls  encompass  churches,  arsenals,  pal- 
aces, and  convents  of  an  architecture  bor- 
rowed from  India  and  Asia  and  the  Eu- 
rope of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  it  is  as  though 
the  Tower  of  London,  the  Houses  of  Par- 
liament, Westminster  Abbey,  St.  Paul's, 
and  the  Knightsbridge  Barracks  were  all 
huddled  together  on  the  Thames  Embank- 
ment and  shut  in  with  monster  walls,  leav- 
ing the  rest  of  London  an  unpicturesque 
waste  of  shops  of  stucco,  and  of  churches 
with  gilded  domes  instead  of  spires,  sepa- 
rated by  narrow  and  roughly  hewn  high- 
ways. If  a  high  wall  were  built  around 
the  lower  part  of  New  York  City,  and 
across  it  at  Rector  Street,  forming  a  tri- 
angle to  the  Battery,  the  extent  of  the 
ground  it  would  cover  would  about  equal 
15 


THE   CORONATION 

that  shut  in  by  the  ramparts  of  the  Krem- 
lin. 

At  the  time  of  the  coronation  the  ar- 
teries of  the  great  sprawling  city  that  lies 
about  this  fortress  were  choked  with  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  strange  people. 
These  people  were  never  at  rest;  they  ap- 
parently never  slept  nor  relaxed,  but  turn- 
ed night  into  day  and  day  into  night,  and 
formed  a  seething,  bubbling  mixture  of 
human  beings,  the  like  of  which  perhaps 
never  before  has  been  brought  together  in 
one  place. 

There  were  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Russian  peasants  who  slept  in  the  streets ; 
there  were  tens  of  thousands  of  Russian 
soldiers  who  slept  under  canvas  in  the 
surrounding  plains ;  there  were  princes 
in  gold  and  plate-glass  carriages  of  state  ; 
Russian  generals  seated  behind  black 
horses,  driven  three  abreast,  that  never 
went  at  a  slower  pace  than  a  gallop,  so 
that  the  common  people  fell  over  one  an- 
other to  get  out   of  danger;    there  were 

16 


THE  CORONATION 

ambassadors  and  governors  of  provinces, 
and  all  their  wonderfully  costumed  suites ; 
bare -kneed  Highlanders  and  bare- kneed 
Servians;  Mongolians  in  wrappers  of  fur 
and  green  brocade,  with  monster  muffs  for 
hats  ;  proud  little  Japanese  soldiers  in 
smart  French  uniforms ;  Germans  with 
spiked  helmets ;  English  diplomats  in  top 
hats  and  frock-coats,  as  though  they  were 
in  Piccadilly ;  Italian  officers  with  five- 
pointed  stars  on  their  collars  and  green 
cocks'  feathers  in  their  patent-leather  som- 
breros ;  Hungarian  nobles  in  fur-trimmed 
satins ;  maharajahs  from  the  Punjab  and 
southern  India  in  tall  turbans  of  silk ;  and 
masters  of  ceremonies  and  dignitaries  of 
the  Russian  court  in  golden  uniforms  and 
with  ostrich  feathers  in  their  cocked  hats. 
And  all  of  these  millions  of  people  were 
crowding  each  other,  pushing  and  hurry- 
ing and  worrying,  each  breathing  more 
than  his  share  of  air  and  taking  up  more 
than  his  share  of  earth,  and  each  of  them 

feverish,  excited,  overworked  and  underfed, 
B  17 


THE    CORONATION 

and  thinking  only  of  himself  and  of  his 
own  duties — whether  his  duty  was  to  leave 
cards  at  some  prince's  door,  or  to  risk  his 
life  in  hanging  a_row  of  lamps  to  a  minaret 
in  the  skies ;  whether  it  was  to  meet  an  ar- 
riving archduke  at  the  railroad  station,  or 
to  beg  his  ambassador  for  places  for  him- 
self and  his  wife  on  a  grandstand. 

Imagine  a  city  with  its  every  street  as 
densely  crowded  as  was  the  Midway  Plai- 
sance  at  the  Chicago  Fair,  and  with  as  dif- 
ferent races  of  people,  and  then  add  to  that 
a  Presidential  convention,  with  its  brass 
bands,  banners,  and  delegates,  and  send 
into  that  at  a  gallop  not  one  Princess 
Eulalie — who  succeeded  in  upsetting  the 
entire  United  States  during  the  short  time 
she  was  in  it — but  several  hundred  Prin- 
cesses Eulalie  and  crown -princesses  and 
kings  and  governors  and  aides-de-camp, 
all  of  whom  together  fail  to  make  any  im- 
pression whatsoever  on  the  city  of  Mos- 
cow, and  then  march  seventy  thousand 
soldiers,  fully  armed,  into  that  mob,  and 

18 


THE  CORONATION 

light  it  with  a  million  colored  lamps,  and 
place  it  under  strict  martial  law,  and  you 
have  an  idea  of  what  Moscow  was  like  at 
the  time  of  the  coronation. 

There  were  probably  some  one  or  two 
of  that  great  crush  who  enjoyed  the  coro- 
nation ceremonies,  but  they  enjoyed  them 
best,  as  every  one  else  does  now,  in  per- 
spective ;  at  the  time  there  was  too  much 
to  do  and  too  little  time  in  which  to  do 
it — even  though  the  sun  did  rise  at  mid- 
night in  order  to  give  us  a  few  more  hours 
of  day — for  any  one  to  breathe  regularly  or 
to  feel  at  peace. 

The  moujik  who  repaired  the  streets 
may  possibly,  in  his  ignorance,  have  en- 
vied the  visiting  prince  as  he  dashed  over 
the  stones  which  the  moujik  had  just  laid 
down  with  his  bare  hands  ;  but  the  prince 
had  probably  been  standing  several  hours 
in  a  padded  uniform,  with  nothing  to  eat 
and  nothing  to  smoke,  and  was  going  back 
to  his  embassy  to  jump  into  another  pad- 
ded uniform  and  to  stand  for  a  few  hours 
19 


THE   CORONATION 

longer,  until,  as  he  drove  back  again  and 
saw  the  moujik  stretched  for  the  night  on 
his  pile  of  cobble  -  stones,  he  probably  en- 
vied him  and  said,  "  Look  at  that  lazy  dog 
sleeping  peacefully,  while  I  must  put  on 
my  fourth  uniform  to-day,  and  stand  up  in 
tight  boots  at  a  presentation  of  felicitations 
and  at  a  court  ball  at  which  no  one  is  al- 
lowed to  dance."  In  those  days  you  could 
call  no  man  happy  unless  you  knew  the 
price  he  paid  for  his  happiness. 

A  large  number  of  the  people  in  Mos- 
cow at  that  time  might  have  been  divided 
into  two  classes :  those  who  were  there  of- 
ficially, and  who  had  every  minute  of  their 
stay  written  out  for  them,  and  who  longed 
for  a  moment's  rest ;  and  those  who  were 
there  unofficially,  and  who  worried  them- 
selves and  every  one  over  them  in  trying 
to  see  the  same  functions  and  ceremonies 
from  which  the  officials  were  as  sincerely 
anxious  to  be  excused.  As  a  rule,  when 
the  visitor  first  arrived  in  Moscow  he 
found  enough  of  interest  in  the  place  it- 


THE   CORONATION 

self  to  content  him,  and  did  not  concern 
himself  immediately  with  the  ceremonies 
or  court  balls;  he  considered,  rightly- 
enough,  that  the  decorations  in  the  streets 
and  the  congress  of  strange  people  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  which  he  saw  about 
him  formed  a  spectacle  which  in  itself  re- 
paid him  for  his  journey.  He  found  the 
city  hung  with  thousands  of  flags  and  ban- 
ners ;  with  Venetian  masts  planted  at  the 
street  corners  and  in  the  open  squares ; 
with  rows  of  flags  on  ropes,  hiding  the  sky 
as  completely  as  do  the  clothes  that  swing 
on  lines  from  the  back  windows  of  New 
York  tenements.  The  streets  were  tun- 
nels of  colored  bunting  by  day  and  valleys 
of  colored  lights  by  night ;  false  facades  of 
electric  bulbs  had  been  built  before  the 
palaces,  theatres,  and  the  more  important 
houses,  and  colored  glass  bowls  in  the 
forms  of  gigantic  stars  and  crowns  and 
crosses,  or  in  letters  that  spelled  the 
names  of  the  young  Czar  and  Czarina, 
were  reared  high  in  the  air,  so  that  they 

21 


THE   CORONATION 

burned  against  the  darkness  like  pieces  of 
stationary  fireworks. 

There  were  miles  and  miles  of  these 
necklaces  of  lamps,  and  people  in  strange 
costumes  and  uniforms  moved  between 
them,  with  their  faces  now  illuminated,  as 
though  by  the  sun's  rays,  by  great  wheels 
of  revolving  electric- light  bulbs,  and  now 
dyed  red  or  blue  or  green,  as  though  they 
were  figures  in  a  ballet  on  the  stage. 

But  the  visitor  who  was  quite  satisfied 
with  this  free  out-of-door  illumination  at 
night,  or  with  wandering  around,  Baede- 
ker in  hand,  by  day,  soon  learned  that 
there  were  other  sights  to  see  behind 
doors  which  were  not  free,  and  access  to 
which  could  not  be  bought  with  roubles, 
and  he  at  once  joined  the  vast  army  of  the 
discontented.  Sometimes  he  wanted  one 
thing,  and  again  another ;  it  might  be  that 
he  aspired  only  to  a  seat  on  a  tribune  from 
which  to  watch  the  parade  pass,  or  it  might 
be  that  he  longed  for  an  invitation  to  the 
ball   at  the   French  Embassy ;  but,  what- 

22 


THE   CORONATION 

ever  it  was,  he  made  life  a  torment  to  him- 
self and  to  his  official  representative  un- 
til he  obtained  it.  The  story  of  the  strug- 
gles of  the  visitors  to  the  coronation  to  be 
present  at  this  or  that  ceremony  would 
fill  many  pages  in  itself;  and  it  might,  if 
truthfully  set  down,  make  humorous  read- 
ing now.  But  it  was  a  desperate  business 
then,  and  heart-burnings  and  envy  and  all 
uncharitableness  ruled  when  Mrs.  A.  was 
invited  to  a  state  dinner  and  Mrs.  B.  was 
not,  or  when  an  aide-de-camp  obtained  a 
higher  place  on  the  tribune  than  did  any 
of  his  brother  officers. 

There  was  what  was  called  a  court  list, 
or  the  distinguished  strangers'  list,  and 
that  was  the  root  of  all  the  evil ;  for  when 
the  visitor  succeeded  in  getting  his  name 
on  that  list  his  struggles  were  at  an  end, 
and  he  saw  at  least  half  of  all  there  was  to 
see,  and  received  large  engraved  cards  from 
the  Emperor,  and  his  soul  was  at  peace. 

And  it  may  be  considered  a  tribute  to 
the  personal  regard  in  which  our  minister 
23 


THE   CORONATION 

is  held  in  St.  Petersburg  that  he  was  able 
to  place  more  of  his  countrymen  on  that 
list  than  were  the  ambassadors  of  any- 
other  country.  It  might  be  urged  that 
several  of  these  etrangers  de  distinction 
from  the  United  States  had  never  been 
heard  of  at  home  until  they  got  their 
names  upon  that  list,  but  that  is  the  more 
reason  why  they  should  feel  grateful  to  a 
minister  who  had  sufficient  influence  with 
the  Russian  court  to  do  well  by  those  who 
had  never  done  very  well  by  themselves. 

Much  was  written,  previous  to  the  for- 
mal entrance  of  the  Czar  into  Moscow,  of 
the  precautions  which  were  being  taken  to 
guard  against  any  attack  upon  his  person, 
and  this  feature  of  the  procession  was  dwelt 
upon  so  continually  that  it  assumed  an  im- 
portance which  it  did  not  deserve.  Mos- 
cow is  the  holy  city  of  Russia,  and  the 
Czar,  as  the  head  of  the  Orthodox  Church, 
was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  greater  safety 
while  there  than  he  might  have  been  in 
any  other  part  of  his  empire.  The  people 
24 


THE   CORONATION 

of  Moscow  are,  outwardly  at  least,  most 
fervently  religious ;  the  daily  routine  of 
their  lives  is  filled  with  devotional  exer- 
cises, and  the  symbols  of  their  Church 
hang  in  each  room  of  each  house,  and  are 
not  only  before  their  eyes,  but  in  their 
minds  as  well.  For  no  devout  Russian 
enters  even  a  shop  without  showing  def- 
erence to  the  shrine  which  is  sure  to  be 
fastened  in  some  one  of  its  four  corners, 
and  in  the  streets  he  is  confronted  at  ev- 
ery fifty  yards  of  his  progress  by  other 
shrines  and  altars  set  in  the  walls  and  by 
churches,  so  that  in  his  walks  abroad  he 
is  so  constantly  engaged  in  the  exercise 
of  crossing  himself  or  of  removing  his  cap 
that  it  is  more  accurate  to  say  of  him  that 
his  prayers  are  occasionally  interrupted 
than  that  he  frequently  stops  to  pray. 
You  will  see  a  porter  who  is  staggering 
under  a  heavy  burden  stop  and  put  it 
down  upon  the  pavement  and  repeat  his 
prayers  before  he  picks  it  up  again,  and 
he  will  do  this  three  or  four  times  in  the 
25 


THE   CORONATION 

course  of  half  an  hour's  walk ;  troops  of 
cavalry  come  to  a  halt  and  remove  their 
hats  and  pray  while  passing  a  church;  and 
when  the  bells  ring,  even  the  policeman 
standing  in  the  middle  of  the  street,  splat- 
tered by  mud  and  threatened  by  galloping 
droschkas,  crosses  himself  and  repeats  his 
prayers  bareheaded,  while  you  try  vainly 
to  imagine  a  policeman  on  Broadway  tak- 
ing off  his  helmet  and  doing  the  same 
thing.  In  the  restaurants  there  is  a  like 
show  of  devotion  on  the  part  of  the  wait- 
ers, who  stand  beside  your  table  mutter- 
ing a  prayer  to  themselves,  while  you  al- 
low your  food  to  grow  cold  rather  than 
interrupt  them. 

This  illustrates  the  reverential  feeling  of 
the  people  who  welcomed  the  Czar,  whom 
they  regard  as  the  living  representative 
of  the  Church  on  earth ;  so,  naturally,  his 
chief  protection  came  not  from  his  detec- 
tives, but  from  this  feeling  for  him  in  the 
hearts  of  his  subjects. 

But  in  a  gathering  of  four  hundred  thou- 

26 


THE   CORONATION 

sand  people,  anywhere  in  the  world,  there 
is  likely  to  be  a  madman  or  two.  President 
Carnot  and  President  Faure,  who  could  not 
be  called  autocratic  rulers,  found  that  this 
was  so,  and  it  was  against  the  possibility 
of  this  chance  madman,  and  not  through 
any  distrust  of  the  mass  of  the  Russian 
people,  that  precautions  were  taken. 

Almost  every  function  connected  with 
the  Czar's  coronation  was  described  on  the 
official  programme  as  "solennel";  even  the 
banquets  were  solemn,  and  the  entrance  of 
the  Czar  and  his  progress  from  outside  the 
gates  to  the  Kremlin  within  was  more  than 
solemn ;  it  was  magnificent,  imposing,  and 
beautiful,  and  in  its  historical  value  and  in 
its  pomp  and  stateliness  without  compari- 
son. Those  who  expected  to  see  the  splen- 
dor of  a  half-barbaric  court  found  a  pageant 
in  which  no  detail  was  in  bad  taste,  and 
those  who  came  prepared  to  exclaim  at  all 
they  saw  sat  hushed  in  wonder.  It  was 
as  solemn  a  spectacle  as  the  annual  prog- 
ress of  the  Pope  through  the  Church  of 
27 


THE  CORONATION 

St.  Peter,  as  beautiful  as  a  picture  of  fairy- 
land, and  as  significant  in  its  suggestion 
of  hidden  power  as  a  moving  line  of  battle- 
ships. For  an  hour  and  a  half  the  proces- 
sion passed  like  a  panorama  of  majesty 
and  wealth  and  beauty,  and  as  silently  as 
a  dream,  while  all  about  it  the  air  was 
broken  by  the  booming  of  cannon  as 
though  the  city  were  besieged,  and  the 
clashing  of  bells,  and  the  curious  moan- 
ing cheer  of  the  Russian  people.  In  this 
procession  were  the  representatives  of 
what  had  once  been  eighteen  separate 
governments,  each  of  which  now  bowed 
in  allegiance  to  the  Russian  Emperor. 
They  appeared  in  their  national  costumes 
and  with  their  own  choice  of  arms,  and 
they  represented  among  them  a  hundred 
millions  of  people,  and  each  of  them  bore 
himself  as  though  his  chief  pride  was  that 
he  owed  allegiance  to  a  young  man  twenty- 
eight  years  old,  a  young  man  who  never 
would  be  seen  by  his  countrymen  in  the 
distant  provinces  from  which  he  came,  to 

28 


THE   CORONATION 

whom  the  Czar  was  but  a  name  and  a  sym- 
bol, but  a  symbol  to  which  they  prayed, 
and  for  which  they  were  prepared  to  give 
up  their  lives. 

Among  these  people,  whose  place  was 
in  the  van  of  the  procession,  were  the  tall 
Cossacks  in  long  scarlet  tunics,  their 
breasts  glittering  with  silver  cartridge- 
cases,  and  their  heads  surmounted  with 
huge  turbans  of  black  Astrakhan  ;  dwarf- 
ish soldiers  from  Finland,  short  and  squat 
like  Esquimaux;  yellow-faced  Tartars  in 
furs,  and  Mongolians  in  silver  robes  ;  wild- 
eyed,  long-haired  horsemen  from  Toorkis- 
tan  and  the  Pamirs,  with  spear  points  as 
long  as  a  sword  blade ;  and  the  gentlemen 
of  the  Chevaliers  Gardes  and  of  the  Garde 
a  Cheval,  in  coats  of  ivory-white  with  sil- 
ver breastplates,  and  helmets  of  gold  on 
which  perched  the  double  eagle  of  Russia 
in  burnished  silver. 

Behind  these  came  many  open  carriages 

of  gold,  lined  with  scarlet  velvet,  in  which 

sat  the  ministers  of  the  court,  holding  their 
29 


THE  CORONATION 

wands  of  office,  and  after  them  servants  of 
the  Emperor's  household  on  foot  in  gold- 
laced  coats  and  white  silk  stockings  and 
white  wigs ;  masters  of  horse  rode  beside 
them,  with  coats  all  of  gold,  both  back  and 
front,  and  with  sleeves  and  collars  of  gold; 
and  behind  them  the  most  picturesque 
feature  of  the  whole  pageant,  the  bronzed, 
fiercely  bearded  huntsmen  of  the  Emperor, 
the  men  who  throttle  the  wolves  with  their 
bare  hands  until  the  dogs  rush  in  and  pull 
them  down,  dressed  in  high  boots  and 
green  coats,  and  armed  with  long  glitter- 
ing knives ;  following  them  were  gigantic 
negroes  in  baggy  trousers  and  scarlet  jack- 
ets—  a  relic  of  the  days  of  Catherine  — 
whose  duty  it  is  to  guard  with  their  lives 
the  entrance  to  the  royal  bedchamber;  and 
after  them  footmen  dressed  as  you  see  them 
in  the  old  prints,  with  ostrich  plumes  and 
tall  wands — descendants  of  the  time  when 
a  footman  ran  on  foot  before  his  master's 
carriage  and  did  not  ride  comfortably  on 
the  box-seat. 

30 


THE  CORONATION 

After  these,  beneath  the  fluttering  flags 
and  between  the  double  row  of  fifty  thou- 
sand glittering  bayonets,  and  under  as 
bright  a  sun  as  ever  shone,  came  a  re- 
splendent group  of  mounted  men  in  uni- 
forms that  differed  in  everything  save 
magnificence,  and  in  the  fact  that  over 
the  breast  of  each  was  drawn  the  blue 
sash  of  the  Order  of  St.  Andrew.  These 
riders  were  the  grand-dukes  of  Russia,  the 
visiting  heirs-apparent  and  princes,  and  the 
dukes  and  archdukes  from  England,  Ger- 
many, Italy,  Greece,  and  Austria — from  all 
over  the  world,  from  the  boy  Prince  of 
Montenegro  to  the  boy  Prince  of  Siam. 

They  rode  without  apparent  order,  al- 
though their  places  were  as  fixed  as  the 
stars  in  their  orbits,  and  thev  formed  the 
most  remarkable  mounted  escort  that  this 
century  has  seen ;  and  in  front  of  them, 
riding  quite  alone,  and  dressed  more  sim- 
ply than  any  one  in  the  procession,  came 
the  young  Czar,  turning  his  face  slightly 
from   side   to    side,  and    with    his   white- 

31 


THE   CORONATION 

gloved  hand  touching  his  Astrakhan  cap. 
The  house-tops  rocked  and  the  sidewalks 
seemed  to  surge  and  sway  with  waving 
caps  and  upraised  hands,  and  the  groan- 
ing, awe -struck  cheer  rose  to  one  great 
general  acclamation  which  drowned  the 
bells  and  the  booming  cannon. 

But  it  rose  still  higher  when,  following 
the  Czar's  escort  of  princes,  came  the 
Dowager  Empress.  It  was  she  who  was 
more  loudly  greeted  than  either  the  Em- 
peror or  the  Czarina,  for  the  people  have 
loved  her  longer,  and  she  has  made  them 
worship  her  through  many  acts  of  clem- 
ency and  kindness,  and  perhaps  far  more 
than  all  else  through  her  devotion  to  her 
husband  during  his  six  months'  illness, 
when  she  sat  day  and  night  at  his  bedside. 

Behind  the  Dowager  Empress  came  the 
state  carriage  of  the  Czarina.  It  was  drawn 
by  eight  snow-white  horses  in  trappings  of 
broad  red  morocco  leather,  covered  with 
heavy  gold  mountings.  The  harness  had 
been  made  in  Paris,  and  the  gold  had  been 
32 


THE   CORONATION 

engraved  in  the  Rue  de  la  Paix.  Each 
horse,  that  would  have  preferred  a  mouth- 
ful of  oats,  ground  his  teeth  on  a  gold  bit  as 
big  around  as  a  man's  thumb,  and  as  deli- 
cately chased  and  engraved  as  a  monogram 
on  a  watch,  and  wore  ostrich  feathers  on 
his  head,  and  ten  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  harness  on  his  back.  The  ten  different 
sets  of  harness  used  in  the  procession  cost 
the  Russian  government  one  million  dol- 
lars. Each  horse  that  drew  the  Czarina's 
chariot  had  an  attendant  in  a  cap  of  ostrich 
feathers  and  a  coat  of  gold,  who  led  him  by 
a  silken  rein,  and  two  giants,  seven  feet 
high,  strode  beside  the  wheels,  and  two  lit- 
tle pages  sat  with  their  backs  to  the  driver 
on  his  gold  throne,  and  regarded  the  Czar- 
ina through  a  screen  of  glass  as  the  young 
Empress  smiled  and  bowed  to  her  adopted 
people  through  the  windows  of  her  Cinder- 
ella chariot.  Great  artists  had  decorated 
the  panels  of  this  carriage,  and  master- 
workmen  had  carved  its  gold  sides  and 
wheels  and  axles ;    plumes   of  white   and 

c  33 


THE   CORONATION 

black  and  orange  ostrich  feathers  nodded 
and  swayed  from  its  top  of  scarlet  velvet, 
and  the  gold-embroidered  cushions  inside 
gave  it  the  appearance  of  a  sumptuous 
jewel-box  fashioned  to  hold  this  most  beau- 
tiful princess  in  her  gown  of  silver,  with 
her  ermine  cloak  fallen  back  from  her 
bare  shoulders,  and  with  diamonds  hang- 
ing from  her  neck  to  her  knees,  and  with 
diamonds  high  upon  her  head. 

In  the  train  of  the  Czarina  were  grand- 
duchesses  and  maids  of  honor  in  still  more 
fairy  carriages ;  and  then,  when  it  seemed 
impossible  to  add  another  touch  of  splen- 
dor to  that  which  had  already  passed,  the 
nature  of  the  procession,  as  though  by  a 
piece  of  clever  stage-management,  sudden- 
ly changed,  and  in  magnificent  contrast  to 
the  grace  and  wealth  and  feminine  beauty 
which  had  gone  before  came  three  miles 
of  armed  and  mounted  men,  the  picked 
horsemen  of  Russia,  crowding  so  closely  to- 
gether that  one  saw  nothing  of  the  street 
over  which  they  passed,  but  only  an  un- 

34 


THE   CORONATION 

broken  mass  of  tossing  manes  and  flash- 
ing breastplates  and  fluttering  pennants, 
and  one  heard  only  the  ceaseless  tramp  of 
horses'  hoofs  and  the  clank  of  steel. 

The  crowning  and  chrismation  of  the 
Czar  of  Russia  was  to  the  rest  of  the 
world  a  beautiful  spectacle,  but  to  the  Rus- 
sian it  was  an  affair  of  the  most  tremen- 
dous religious  significance.  How  serious 
this  point  of  view  was  is  shown  in  an  ex- 
tract from  the  official  explanation  of  the 
coronation,  the  authorized  guide  to  the 
service,  which  was  printed  in  four  lan- 
guages and  furnished  to  those  who  wit- 
nessed the  ceremony.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  in  the  paragraph  quoted  here 
the  capital  letters  are  about  equally  di- 
vided between  the  ruling  family  and  the 
Deity : 

"  The  Royal  power  in  Russia,  from  the  time  that 
she  was  formed  into  an  empire,  forms  the  heart  of 
the  nation.  All  Russia  prays  for  the  Tsar,  as  for 
her  father;  from   Him  descends  grace  &  benevo- 

35 


THE   CORONATION 

lence  upon  His  subjects,  in  Him  all  good  finds  sup- 
port &  protection,  &  evil  merited  punishment.  In 
the  instance  of  the  Autocrat  of  Russia  we  see  that 
the  Tsars  reign  by  the  Lord,  God  Almighty  has 
often  manifested  His  affection  for  the  Russian  peo- 
ple on  their  Tsar.  The  affection  of  the  Lord  rests 
on  the  Ruling  House  &  the  right  hand  of  the  Al- 
mighty guards,  removes  &  saves  It  from  all  mis- 
fortunes &  evils." 

This  is  the  spirit  in  which  the  corona- 
tion is  regarded  by  the  orthodox  Russian ; 
and  the  desire  simply  to  be  near  the  ca- 
thedral where  this  ceremony  was  taking 
place  was  what  brought  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  Russians  of  all  classes  to  Moscow 
and  to  the  walls  of  the  Kremlin,  so  .that 
when  the  sun  rose  resplendent  on  the  day 
of  the  coronation,  the  high  banks  of  that 
fortress,  the  streets  around  it,  the  bridges 
and  open  squares,  and  the  shores  of  the 
river  which  cuts  Moscow  in  two,  were 
black  with  the  people  who  had  spent  the 
night  in  the  open  air,  who  followed  the 
coronation  from  point  to  point  of  the  ser- 
vice by  the  aid  of  the  bells  and  the  cannon, 
36 


THE   CORONATION 

\fp*  *        4 

and  who  fell  upon  their  knees  or  lifted 
their  voices  in  prayer  in  unison  with  those 
within  the  walls  of  the  Church  of  the  As- 
sumption. 

The  story  of  how  these  latter  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  Church  of  the  Assumption 
would  be  extremely  interesting  reading  if 
the  masters  of  ceremonies  would  choose 
to  tell  it.  The  matter  cost  these  dignita- 
ries many  sleepless  nights,  and  where  it 
made  them  one  friend  it  made  them  a 
dozen  enemies.  It  was  an  extremely  dif- 
ficult task,  for  on  account  of  the  lack  of 
space  in  the  cathedral  it  was  quite  impos- 
sible to  give  room  there  to  many  who 
would  have  been  entitled  to  a  place  in  it 
if  their  official  importance  and  not  their 
physical  size  had  been  the  deciding-point ; 
but  as  it  was,  the  question  became  not 
whom  "  the  Ceremonies  "  could  please  by 
admitting,  but  whom  they  could  least  of- 
fend by  keeping  out.  In  order  to  satisfy 
these  latter,  tribunes  were  arranged  around 
the  cathedral,  and  those  who  sat  on  cer- 

37 


THE   CORONATION 

tain  tribunes  were  supposed  to  be  offi- 
cially present  at  the  coronation.  This 
may  explain  what  is  meant  by  several 
well-known  people  when  they  say  they 
saw  the  coronation  of  the  Czar;  officially 
speaking,  they  were  present,  but  in  much 
the  same  sense  that  the  ruler  of  England 
is  supposed  to  be  present  on  the  bridge  of 
every  English  man-of-war,  so  that  an  of- 
ficer always  salutes  when  he  mounts  the 
companionway  of  that  structure ;  but,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  these  latter  only  saw  the 
procession  as  the  Czar  and  the  Czarina 
entered  and  left  the  cathedral,  and  that 
in  itself  was  worth  travelling  four  thou- 
sand miles  to  see. 

Those  who  saw  the  actual  ceremony 
were  members  of  the  imperial  family  and 
the  most  important  of  the  Russian  no- 
bles, the  visiting  princes,  the  heads  of  resi- 
dent and  special  embassies  and  legations, 
and,  in  a  few  instances,  their  first  secre- 
taries, the  aides-de-camp  of  the  foreign 
princes,  and  a  few  correspondents  and 
38 


THE    CORONATION 

artists.  An  ambassador  who  happened 
to  be  unmarried  was  a  man  among  men 
to  "  the  Ceremonies,"  and  a  prince  who 
did  not  insist  on  having  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  his  army  standing  at  his  side 
filled  their  eyes  with  tears  of  joy.  It  was 
their  duty  to  decide  between  an  aide-de- 
camp from  Bulgaria  and  a  Russian  am- 
bassador at  home  on  leave,  a  Japanese 
prince  and  an  English  general,  a  German 
duchess  and  the  correspondent  of  the 
Paris  Figaro.  It  was  a  matter  of  so 
many  square  inches  chiefly,  and  one  man 
or  woman  who  got  in  kept  a  dozen  appli- 
cants for  the  space  out;  and  the  pressure 
that  was  brought  to  bear  in  order  to  gain 
a  footing — and  a  footing  was  actually  all 
one  obtained— threatened  the  peace  of  Eu- 
rope, and  caused  tears  of  disappointment 
and  wounds  that  will  rankle  in  the  breasts 
of  noble  Russian  families  for  years  to 
come. 

Personally  I  knew  nothing  of  the  strug- 
gles of  any  save  the  correspondents,  and 

39 


THE   CORONATION 

they  were  sufficient  in  themselves  to  hold 
my  undivided  attention  for  ten  days  and 
ten  nights.  There  were  three  hundred 
correspondents,  speaking  eleven  different 
languages,  and  each  advanced  his  indi- 
vidual claims  and  the  claims  of  the  peri- 
odical he  represented  with  a  pertinacity 
and  vigor  worthy  of  a  great  cause.  It  is 
a  small  thing  now,  but  at  the  time  life  did 
not  seem  worth  living  unless  you  were  to 
be  admitted  to  the  cathedral,  and  then 
even  it  did  not  mean  so  much  to  get  in 
as  it  did  to  have  come  that  distance  and 
to  be  kept  out.  A  great  political  party 
backed  the  men  who  represented  the  of- 
ficial organ  of  that  party ;  banking  houses, 
cabinet  ministers,  ladies  of  high  degree, 
ambassadors,  and  princes  brought  finan- 
cial, social,  and  political  influence  into  the 
fight,  and  lobbied,  bribed,  and  cajoled  for 
their  favorites  with  a  skill  and  show  of 
feeling  that  reminded  one  of  the  struggles 
among  the  delegates  at  a  Presidential  con- 
vention in  Chicago;  while  the  Russian 
40 


THE   CORONATION 

officials,  bewildered,  dazed,  and  driven  to 
distraction,  maintained  throughout  an  ab- 
solute silence  as  to  who  might  be  the  fort- 
unate ones,  and  by  so  doing  kept  the 
struggles  raging  round  their  heads  until 
the  very  eve  of  the  coronation.  They 
even  refused  hope  to  one  man,  an  English 
artist  named  Forrestier,  who  came  with 
a  letter  of  introduction  from  Queen  Vic- 
toria to  the  Grand-Duchess  Sergius,  which 
fact  had  naturally  a  somewhat  depress- 
ing effect  upon  those  who  had  no  queens 
to  push  them  forward ;  and  even  men 
like  Sir  Donald  McKenzie  Wallace,  who 
represented  the  Times,  and  Sir  Edwin 
Arnold,  the  correspondent  of  the  Daily 
Telegraph,  did  not  know  that  their  call- 
ing and  election  was  by  any  means  sure. 

In  the  end  "  the  Ceremonies "  turned 
away  such  men  as  Frederick  Villiers,  who 
had  been  present  at  the  last  coronation, 
and  who  was  one  of  the  four  correspond- 
ents who  had  followed  the  Russian  army 
from  the  beginning  of  the  Russian-Turk- 
41 


THE   CORONATION 

ish  war  to  the  fall  of  Plevna;  so  that 
those  who  got  in  cannot  feel  that  they 
did  so  on  the  principle  of  the  selection 
of  the  fittest.  It  was  represented  in  my 
behalf  that  anything  that  was  written 
in  a  magazine  would  be  more  easy  of 
access  in  the  future,  and  would  have  a 
more  lasting  quality  than  that  which  ap- 
peared in  the  more  ephemeral  columns  of 
a  daily  paper;  so  I  was  admitted  because 
I  represented  a  magazine,  and  in  spite 
of  the  fact,  and  not  on  account  of  the 
fact,  that  I  was  also  cabling  to  a  New 
York  paper.  But  without  the  help  of  the 
American  minister,  and  the  members  of 
the  visiting  and  resident  American  lega- 
tions— and  Trowbridge — I  could  not  have 
got  in.  The  members  of  our  legations 
who  were  present  in  the  chapel  were  six: 
they  were  the  American  minister,  Mr.  Clif- 
ton R.Breckinridge, and  Mrs.  Breckinridge, 
General  Alexander  McD.  McCook  and 
Mrs.  McCook,  Admiral  Selfridge,  and  Mrs. 

Peirce,  the  wife  of  the  secretary  of  legation, 
42 


THE    CORONATION 

who  was  admitted  even  though  her  hus- 
band for  some  unknown  reason  was  not. 
The  New  York  Herald  was  represented, 
but  by  two  Englishmen,  Aubrey  Stanhope 
and  Sir  Edwin  Arnold ;  the  American 
Associated  Press  by  another  Englishman, 
named  Watson;  the  United  Press  of 
America  by  Louis  Moore,  an  American ; 
and  Harper  s  Magazine  and  the  New  York 
Journal  by  myself. 

These  six  officials  and  Louis  Moore, 
who  represented  seventeen  hundred  pa- 
pers, and  the  writer  were  the  only  Ameri- 
cans in  the  cathedral — eight  in  all. 

Admittance  to  the  cathedral  and  to  the 
Kremlin  itself  was  hedged  about  with 
much  formality,  and  to  one  who  did  not 
speak  or  read  Russian  the  attempt  was 
something  of  an  ordeal,  and  attended  with 
a  nervous  fear  of  being  turned  back  at  the 
last  moment  and  when  within  sight  of  the 
goal.  I  was  required  to  show  a  ticket, 
which  my  driver  wore  in  his  hat,  before 
I  could  pass  the  police  lines  in  the  streets  ; 

43 


THE   CORONATION 

another  ticket  was  necessary  to  enter  the 
gates  of  the  Kremlin ;  there  was  a  card  of 
invitation  to  the  palace  after  the  corona- 
tion, and  one  more  for  the  cathedral,  and 
with  it  a  badge  in  the  shape  of  a  gold 
crown  and  a  bow  of  the  blue  ribbon  of 
the  order  of  St.  Andrew.  Besides  these, 
I  had  to  carry  a  photograph,  stamped 
and  sealed  for  identification  by  the  po- 
lice, and  a  blue  and  white  enamelled  star, 
which  showed  that  I  was  an  accredited 
correspondent. 

The  word  "  cathedral  "  has  misled  many 
people  in  regard  to  the  size  of  the  church 
in  which  the  coronation  took  place,  as 
have  also  the  photographs  of  its  exterior. 
The  Church  of  the  Assumption  is  really 
more  of  a  chapel  than  a  cathedral,  and 
is  cut  in  two  by  a  great  gold  screen,  so 
that  those  who  witnessed  the  ceremony 
were  crowded  into  a  space  only  one-half 
as  large  as  that  suggested  by  those  pict- 
ures which  show  the  building  from  the 
outside.     This  space  is  about  as  large  as 

44 


THE   CORONATION 

the  stage  of  a  New  York  theatre.  It  is 
hemmed  in  by  three  walls  and  the  high 
gold  screen  which  separates  the  altar  and 
the  sacred  tombs  and  the  holy  relics  from 
the  rest  of  the  cathedral.  These  walls  are 
overlaid  from  the  floor  to  the  dome  above 
with  gold-leaf,  upon  which  are  frescos  of 
the  saints  in  dark  blues  and  reds  and 
greens,  each  saint  wearing  around  his 
head  a  halo  of  gold  studded  with  precious 
stones.  The  screen  is  a  wall  in  itself ;  the 
gold  upon  it  alone  weighs  five  tons,  and 
the  figures  of  holy  men  in  fresco  and 
mosaic  with  which  it  is  decorated  are  cov- 
ered with  rows  of  pearls  and  hung  with 
emeralds,  rubies,  and  diamonds.  In  the 
centre  of  this  hall  of  precious  stones  and 
pure  gold  are  four  great  pillars,  the  low- 
er half  of  which  were  wrapped  about  for 
the  coronation  in  heavy  folds  of  purple 
velvet.  On  a  platform  stretched  between 
these  pillars,  under  a  canopy  of  velvet 
stamped  with  the  double  eagle  of  Russia 
and   bearing   tufts   of  ostrich   feathers  of 

45 


THE   CORONATION 

orange,  black,  and  white,  were  the  three 
thrones.  The  Czar's  throne  was  in  the 
centre,  on  the  left  of  it  the  Czarina's,  and 
that  of  the  Dowager  Empress  was  at  the 
right.  His  was  of  silver  inlaid  with  great 
blue  turquoises ;  the  Czarina's  of  ivory, 
carved  with  scenes  of  the  chase ;  that  of 
the  Dowager  Empress  was  of  silver  studded 
with  all  manner  of  precious  stones,  includ- 
ing eight  hundred  and  eighty  diamonds. 

The  light  that  illuminated  the  chapel 
came  through  long  stained-glass  windows, 
and  from  twinkling  lamps  fastened  by 
chains  to  the  dusky  dome  above,  and  as 
the  sun  entered  the  place  its  long  rays  of 
colored  light  pierced  the  smoke  of  the 
incense  and  regilded  the  walls,  passing 
from  one  jewelled  saint  to  the  next,  so 
that  the  dull  stones  gleamed  and  shone, 
and  the  jewels  on  the  lamps,  as  they 
turned  and  twisted,  coruscated  and  flashed 
in  the  dim  heights  above  like  the  hidden 
treasures  in  the  cave  of  Monte  Cristo. 

It  is  difficult  to  know  what  to   tell   of 
46 


THE   CORONATION 

the  ceremony  of  the  coronation — what  to 
leave  unsaid  and  what  to  say.  The  story 
might  be  written  by  twenty  different  men, 
each  writing  in  much  greater  detail  than 
is  allowed  in  the  space  of  this  single  arti- 
cle, and  yet  all  would  not  be  told ;  nor 
might  any  two  tell  of  the  same  thing.  It 
would  depend  upon  the  point  of  view. 
The  story  might  be  told  as  it  appealed 
to  the  sad-eyed  priest  in  his  long,  un- 
kempt hair  and  beard,  and  robe  of  gold 
— the  devout  Muscovite  to  whom  the  dig- 
nitaries present  were  but  as  actors  on  a 
stage,  in  comparison  with  the  sacred  char- 
acter of  the  chapel  itself  and  with  the  holy 
relics  it  contained.  That  one  emerald 
alone  in  the  great  gold  wall  was  worth  a 
king's  ransom  would  mean  nothing  to  one 
who  believed  that  St.  Paul  with  his  own 
hands  had  painted  the  picture  beneath  it, 
and  that  a  part  of  the  robe  of  our  Saviour 
and  a  nail  of  the  true  cross  lay  hidden 
under  the  same  dome  which  sheltered 
these    women    with    bare    shoulders,    and 

47 


THE   CORONATION 

these  princes  of  a  day  in  their  tinsel  and 
diamond  stars.  Or  why  should  he  con- 
sider the  deeds  of  these  famous  generals 
when  one  of  the  holy  pictures  in  his 
keeping  had  turned  back  Tamerlane  and 
his  whole  army?  Could  the  grizzled  old 
warrior  Gourko,  or  the  big  kindly  eyed 
English  general  Grenfell,  the  hero  of  the 
Soudan,  or  the  little  dark-skinned  Yama- 
gata,  have  done  more  ? 

Or  the  story  might  be  told  by  one  of 
the  ambassadors  in  the  front  row  of  the 
tribune,  who  would  see  in  the  ceremony 
and  in  the  display  and  publicity  given  it 
a  new  departure  for  Russia,  a  bid,  as  it 
were,  for  the  attention  of  the  world.  To 
him  the  people  themselves  would  be  the 
essential  feature.  He  would  see  a  half- 
confessed  alliance  in  the  position  assigned 
a  brother  ambassador,  or  read  a  promise 
of  marriage  in  the  triumphant  smile  of 
one  of  the  visiting  princes.  His  story 
would  have  been   one  full  of  diplomatic 

secrets,  which    is   only  another  word  for 

48 


THE   CORONATION 

the  gossip  of  diplomats;  and  he  would 
have  been  delighted  to  explain  why  the 
representative  of  the  United  States,  in- 
stead of  ranking  with  the  ambassadors  of 
other  powers  nearly  as  great  as  his  own, 
stood  below  the  minister  from  a  little 
kingdom  as  small  as  Rhode  Island,  and 
not  half  so  important,  except  for  a  lurid 
past;  and  why  the  Austrian  ambassador, 
the  representative  of  an  emperor,  and  a 
prince  in  his  own  right,  had  been  given 
the  Grand  Cross  of  St.  Andrew,  as  though 
he  were  a  ruling  monarch,  on  the  evening 
of  one  day,  and  had  been  asked  to  give  it 
back  before  breakfast  on  the  following 
morning.  He  would  have  told  you  that 
the  reason  the  English  bishop,  with  his 
mitre  and  crook,  sat  in  a  higher  place 
than  the  papal  nuncio  was  because  the 
Greek  Church  was  coquetting  with  the 
Church  of  England,  and  that  the  English 
ambassador,  being  a  Roman  Catholic,  had 
chosen  not  to  recognize  the  peer  of  the 
English  Church  or  to  present  him  to  the 

D  49 


THE   CORONATION 

Czar,  and  that  the  Czar  was  indignant  ac- 
cordingly; but  how  much  more  serious 
than  this  was  the  silly  act  of  his  confrere, 
the  French  ambassador,  who  had  nearly 
undone  what  his  country  was  striving  to 
bring  about,  by  refusing  to  kiss  the  Cza- 
rina's hand,  because,  forsooth !  the  poor 
little  soul  held  that  act  of  homage  to  be 
unbecoming  in  a  representative  of  a  free 
republic.  As  though  discourtesy  had  ever 
been  a  sign  of  independence,  or  as  though 
kissing  the  hand  of  a  woman  could  bring 
anything  but  honor  to  any  man,  even  to 
a  Frenchman  whose  republicanism  has  not 
become  so  serious  that  it  has  made  him 
forego  his  title. 

There  were  enough  stories,  besides,  to 
fill  many  books — stories  of  the  men  pres- 
ent who  had  been  busy  for  the  last  quar- 
ter of  a  century  in  making  the  history  of 
the  world;  stories  full  of  romance  and 
intrigue ;  stories  of  love  and  of  battle. 
There  was  the  sailor  prince  who  had 
saved  the  Czar's  life  from  the  sword  of 
50 


THE    CORONATION 

an  assassin ;  the  Russian  prince  who  is  to 
build  a  railroad  from  Paris  to  Pekin,  and 
who  learned  how  it  could  be  done  as  a 
mechanic  in  the  machine-shops  of  Al- 
toona;  there  was  the  Bulgarian  prince, 
with  hooked  nose  and  with  jewels  to  his 
nails,  who  changed  his  child's  religion  to 
pay  for  a  ticket  of  admission  to  this  cere- 
mony. 

Or  the  story  of  one  stone  alone  among 
the  thousands  flashing  in  the  light  would 
read  like  a  romance  if  it  were  told  in  de- 
tail— how  it  gleamed  once  in  the  dark 
shades  of  a  Hindoo  temple  in  the  brow 
of  a  god,  how  a  private  soldier  with  a 
bayonet  in  his  profane  hands  dug  it  out 
and  carried  it  for  months  in  his  knapsack, 
how  it  lay  tossed  by  the  waves  in  the  sea- 
chest  of  a  sailor,  who  sold  it  to  a  Jew 
dealer  in  Hatton  Garden,  who  passed  it 
on,  until  its  last  owner  exchanged  it  for 
a  title  and  five  million  francs  and  a  yearly 
pension  of  two  thousand  roubles.  And 
so  it  rests  at  last  at  the  end  of  the  Czar's 
51 


THE   CORONATION 

sceptre,  and  on  account  of  its  great  estate 
one  must  now  back  away  from  it,  when 
he  is  allowed  to  look  at  the  regalia,  as  he 
would  from  royalty  itself,  or  as  the  Hin- 
doos bowed  before  it  long  ago  when  the 
Orloff  diamond  was  the  eye  of  the  great 
god  Siva. 

The  coronation  as  a  picture  was  much 
more  beautiful  than  any  one  could  pos- 
sibly have  imagined  it  was  going  to  be, 
and  the  scene  would  have  been  even  more 
impressive  if  the  people  had  not  been  so 
closely  crowded  together  that  the  colors 
of  the  uniforms  and  court  dresses  with 
their  ornaments  and  decorations  were  lost 
in  the  press  of  numbers.  As  it  was,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  a  very  tall  man  or 
a  particularly  lofty  tiara,  you  saw  only 
those  who  stood  in  the  front  rows,  and  the 
epaulets  or  coronets  of  the  many  behind 
them.  They  were  so  close  together,  in- 
deed, that  when  the  moment  came  when 
all  should  have  knelt  and  the  Emperor 
alone  should  have  remained  standing, 
52 


THE   CORONATION 

there  was  not  room  for  the  men  to  kneel, 
and  many  of  them  were  forced  to  merely 
bend  forward,  supporting  themselves  on 
the  shoulders  of  those  already  kneeling. 

The  tribune  to  the  right  of  the  thrones 
was  the  one  most  closely  crowded.  It 
held  the  grand-duchesses  and  the  ladies 
of  the  court,  who  were  in  the  native  cos- 
tume of  the  country,  and  who  wore  the 
diamonds  for  which  that  country  is  cele- 
brated. On  the  tribune  immediately  be- 
hind the  throne  stood  the  Russian  sena- 
tors in  magnificent  coats  of  gold,  with 
boots  to  the  hip  and  white  leather  breeches, 
and  with  ostrich  feathers  in  their  peaked 
hats  ;  with  them  were  the  correspondents, 
the  Germans  and  Russians  in  military 
uniforms,  the  Englishmen  in  their  own 
court  dress,  and  the  Frenchmen  and 
Americans  in  evening  dress,  which  at 
that  hour  of  the  morning  made  them  look 
as  though  they  had  been  up  all  night. 
The  diplomats  and  their  wives,  and  the 
visiting    commanders-in-chief    and    gen- 

53 


THE   CORONATION 

erals  of  armies  from  all  over  the  world, 
occupied  the  third  tribune  to  the  left  of 
the  throne,  and  formed  the  most  splen- 
did and  gorgeous  group  of  all.  Around 
the  platform  itself  were  the  princes  and 
grand -dukes  glittering  with  the  chains 
and  crosses  of  the  imperial  orders,  and 
between  the  screen  and  the  platform  the 
priests  moved  to  and  fro  in  jewelled  mi- 
tres as  large  as  a  diver's  helmet,  and  in 
robes  stiff  with  gold  and  precious  stones, 
their  vestments  flashing  like  the  scales  of 
goldfish.  For  five  hours  the  sun  shone 
dimly  through  the  stained  glass  and  bold- 
ly through  the  high  open  doors  on  this 
mass  of  color  and  mixture  of  jewels,  so 
that  the  eye  grew  wearied  as  it  flashed 
from  sword  hilts  and  epaulets  or  passed 
lightly  from  shining  silks  and  satins  to 
touch  tiaras  and  coronets,  falling  for  one 
instant  upon  the  white  hair  of  some  red 
and  grizzled  warrior,  or  caressing  the  shoul- 
ders and  face  of  some  beautiful  girl. 

But  nothing  in  the  whole  drama  of  the 

54 


THE   CORONATION 

morning  presented  so  impressive  a  picture 
as  did  the  young  Empress  when  she  first 
entered  the  chapel  and  stood  before  her 
throne.  Of  all  the  women  there  she  was 
the  most  simply  robed,  and  of  all  the  wom- 
en there  she  was  by  far  the  most  beauti- 
ful. A  single  string  of  pearls  was  her  only 
ornament,  and  her  hair,  which  was  worn 
like  that  of  a  Russian  peasant  girl,  fell 
in  two  long  plaits  over  her  bare  shoul- 
ders— bare  even  of  a  strap,  of  a  bow,  of  a 
jewel  —  and  her  robe  of  white  and  silver 
was  as  simple  as  that  of  a  child  going 
to  her  first  communion.  As  she  stepped 
upon  the  dais  the  color  in  her  cheeks  was 
high,  and  her  eyes  were  filled  with  that 
shyness  or  melancholy  which  her  pictures 
have  made  familiar ;  and  in  contrast  with 
the  tiaras  and  plumes  and  necklaces  of  the 
ladies  of  the  court  surrounding  her,  she 
looked  more  like  Iphigenia  going  to  the 
sacrifice  than  the  queen  of  the  most  pow- 
erful empire  in  the  world  waiting  to  be 
crowned. 

55 


THE   CORONATION 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  cere- 
mony, perhaps,  was  when  the  Czar  changed 
from  a  bareheaded  young  officer  in  a  colo- 
nel's uniform,  with  his  trousers  stuck  in 
his  boots,  to  an  emperor  in  the  most  mag- 
nificent robes  an  emperor  could  assume, 
and  when  the  Czarina  followed  him,  and 
from  the  peasant  girl  became  a  queen,  with 
the  majesty  of  a  queen,  and  with  the  per- 
sonal beauty  which  the  queens  of  our 
day  seem  to  have  lost.  When  the  mo- 
ment had  arrived  for  this  transformation 
to  take  place,  the  Czar's  uncle,  the  Grand- 
Duke  Vladimir,  and  his  younger  brother 
Alexander  lifted  the  collars  of  the  different 
orders  from  the  Czar's  shoulders,  but  in 
doing  this  the  Grand-Duke  Vladimir  let 
one  of  the  stars  fall,  which  seemed  to  hold 
a  superstitious  interest  for  both  of  them. 
They  then  fastened  upon  his  shoulders 
the  imperial  mantle  of  gold  cloth,  which  is 
some  fifteen  feet  in  length,  with  a  cape  of 
ermine,  and  covered  with  the  double  eagle 
of  Russia  in  black  enamel  and  precious 
56 


THE   CORONATION 

stones.  Over  this  they  placed  the  broad 
diamond  Collar  of  St.  Andrew,  which  sank 
into  the  bed  of  snowy  white  fur,  and  lay 
glimmering  and  flashing  as  the  Emperor 
moved  forward  to  take  the  imperial  dia- 
dem from  the  hands  of  the  Metropolitan 
of  St.  Petersburg. 

The  crown  was  a  marvellous  thing,  fash- 
ioned in  two  halves  to  typify  the  eastern 
and  western  kingdoms,  formed  entirely 
of  white  diamonds,  and  surmounted  by  a 
great  glowing  ruby,  above  which  was  a 
diamond  cross.  The  Czar  lifted  this  flash- 
ing globe  of  flame  and  light  high  above 
him,  and  then  lowered  it  to  his  head,  and 
took  the  sceptre  in  his  right  hand  and  the 
globe  in  the  left. 

When  the  Czar  seated  himself  upon  the 
throne,  the  Czarina  turned  and  raised  her 
eyes  questioningly ;  and  then,  in  answer 
to  some  sign  he  made  her,  she  stood  up 
and  walked  to  a  place  in  front  of  him, 
and  sank  down  upon  her  knees  at  his 
feet,  with  her  bare  hands  clasped  before 

57 


THE   CORONATION 

her.  He  rested  his  crown  for  an  instant 
on  her  brow,  and  then  replacing  it  upon 
his  own  head,  lowered  a  smaller  crown 
of  diamonds  upon  hers.  Three  ladies-in- 
waiting  fastened  it  to  her  hair  with  long 
gold  hair-pins,  the  Czar  watching  them  as 
they  did  so  with  the  deepest  interest;  and 
then,  as  they  retired,  two  of  the  grand-dukes 
placed  a  mantle  similar  to  the  Czar's  upon 
her  shoulders,  and  hung  another  diamond 
collar  upon  the  ermine  of  her  cape,  and 
she  stepped  back  to  her  throne  of  ivory 
and  he  to  his  throne  of  turquoise.  The 
supreme  moment  had  come  and  gone, 
and  Nicholas  II.  and  Alexandra  Feodo- 
rovna  sat  crowned  before  the  nations  of 
the  world. 

Some  one  made  a  signal  through  the 
open  door,  and  the  diplomats  on  the 
tribunes  outside  rose  to  their  feet  and 
the  crush  of  moujiks  below  them  sank 
on  their  knees,  and  the  regiments  of 
young  peasant  soldiers  flung  their  guns 
at  salute,  and  the  bells  of  the  churches 
58 


THE   CORONATION 

carried  the  news  over  the  heads  of  the 
kneeling  thousands  across  the  walls  of 
the  Kremlin  to  where  one  hundred  and 
one  cannon  hurled  it  on  across  the  river 
and  up  to  the  highest  hill  of  Moscow, 
where  the  modern  messengers  of  good 
and  evil  began  to  tick  it  out  to  Odessa, 
to  Constantinople,  to  Berlin,  to  Paris,  to 
the  rocky  coast  of  Penzance,  where  it 
slipped  into  the  sea  and  hurried  on  un- 
der the  ocean  to  the  illuminated  glass  face 
in  the  Cable  Company's  tall  building  on 
Broadway,  until  the  world  had  been  cir- 
cled, and  the  answering  congratulations 
came  pouring  into  Moscow  while  the 
young  Emperor  still  stood  under  the 
dome  of  the  little  chapel. 

The  most  interesting  part  of  the  cere- 
mony that  followed  was  the  presentation 
of  felicitations  by  the  visiting  princes  and 
princesses.  It  was  interesting  because  the 
usual  position  of  things  was  reversed,  and 
the  royalties  who  watch  with  smiles  the 
courtesies  and  bows  of  the  humbly  born 

59 


THE   CORONATION 

who  come  to  their  levees  and  presentations 
were  now  forced  to  bow  and  courtesy,  and 
the  lowly  born  were  the  smiling,  critical 
spectators. 

And  it  was  satisfactory  to  find  that  the 
royalties  were  quite  as  awkward  over  it  and 
as  embarrassed  as  was  ever  any  young  de- 
butante at  a  Buckingham  Palace  Drawing 
Room.  What  they  had  to  do  was  simple 
enough.  They  had  each  to  cross  the  plat- 
form, to  kiss  the  Czar  on  the  cheek  and  the 
Czarina  on  the  hand  alone,  and  if  it  were 
a  woman  who  was  presenting  her  congratu- 
lations, to  turn  her  cheek  to  the  Czarina  to 
kiss  in  return.  The  same  ceremony  was 
required  for  the  Dowager  Empress  as  for 
the  Czarina.  It  does  not  sound  difficult, 
but  not  more  than  six  out  of  a  hundred  did 
what  they  had  been  told  to  do,  and  each  of 
them  hurried  through  with  it  as  quickly  as 
possible,  and  with  an  expression  of  counte- 
nance that  betokened  anything  rather  than 
smiling  congratulations.     For  from   their 

point  of  view  all  their  little  world  was  look- 

60 


THE   CORONATION 

ing  on  at  them,  all  their  princely  cousins 
and  kingly  nephews  and  royal  uncles  and 
aunts  were  standing  by  to  see,  and  for  the 
brief  moment  in  which  each  passed  across 
the  platform  and  most  unwillingly  held  the 
centre  of  the  stage,  he  felt  that  the  whole 
of  Europe  was  considering  his  appearance, 
and  criticising  his  bow,  and  counting  the 
number  of  times  he  kissed  or  was  kissed  in 
return.  The  Duke  of  Connaught,  being 
the  Czarina's  uncle,  was  the  only  man  who 
kissed  her;  and  the  Prince  of  Naples,  the 
heir  to  the  throne  of  Italy,  did  not  even 
kiss  the  Czar,  but  gave  each  of  them  a  hand 
timidly,  and  then  backed  away  as  though 
he  were  afraid  they  would  kiss  him  in 
spite  of  himself.  Some  of  the  royalties, 
in  their  embarrassment,  assumed  a  most 
severe  and  disapproving  air,  as  did  the 
Queen  of  Greece,  a  very  handsome  woman 
in  fur,  who,  in  contrast  to  the  simpers  of 
the  others  and  in  order  to  show  how  self- 
possessed  she  was,  scowled  at  the  young 
couple  like   Lady  Macbeth  in   the  sleep- 

61 


THE   CORONATION 

walking  scene.  Others  looked  as  though 
they  were  saying  good -night  to  their 
hostess,  and  assuring  her  that  they  had 
had  a  very  pleasant  evening;  but  a  few 
were  deeply  moved,  and  kissed  the  Czar's 
diamond  collar  as  a  sign  of  fealty,  and 
some  of  the  Russian  nobles  bowed  very 
low,  and  then  kissed  the  Czarina's  bare 
shoulder. 

After  the  congratulations  the  ceremony 
was  continued  by  the  priests  alone,  who 
chanted  and  prayed  for  nearly  two  hours, 
during  which  time  the  Czar  and  Czarina 
took  but  little  part  in  the  service  beyond 
crossing  themselves  at  certain  intervals. 
The  strain  became  very  great ;  it  was  im- 
possible to  keep  one's  attention  fixed  on 
the  strange  music  of  the  choir  or  on  the 
unfamiliar  chanting  of  the  priests,  and 
people  began  to  whisper  to  one  another, 
until  at  the  end  of  the  ceremony  almost 
every  one  was  whispering  as  though  he 
were  at  an  afternoon  tea. 

It  was  not  that  there  was  any  disrespect 

62 


THE   CORONATION 

felt,  but  that  it  had  become  physically  im- 
possible, after  six  hours  of  silence  and  of 
remaining  wedged  in  an  upright  position 
in  one  place,  to  maintain  an  attentive  atti- 
tude of  either  mind  or  body. 

But  the  priests  ceased  at  last,  and  the 
most  solemn  ceremony  of  the  chrismation 
was  reached,  and  the  Czar  passed  from 
sight  through  the  jewelled  door  of  the 
screen,  while  his  young  wife,  who  could 
not  enter  with  him,  waited,  praying  for  him 
beside  the  picture  of  the  Virgin.  When 
he  came  forth  again  the  tears  were  stream- 
ing down  his  cheeks  and  beard,  and  he 
bent  and  kissed  the  Empress  like  a  man 
in  a  dream,  as  though  during  the  brief 
space  in  which  he  had  stood  in  the  holy 
of  holies  he  had  been  face  to  face  with  the 
mysteries  of  another  world. 

That  was  the  end  of  the  ceremony  of 
the  coronation,  and  let  us  hope  it  will  be  a 
long  time  before  there  will  be  another  one. 

In  looking  back  at  it  now,  it  seems  to 
me  that  what  made  it  most  impressive 
63 


THE   CORONATION 

was  the  youth  of  the  Czar  and  Czarina. 
There  was  something  in  the  sweet  girlish- 
ness  of  her  manner,  and  of  the  dauntless- 
ness  of  the  boy  in  his,  that  gave  them 
both  an  inexpressible  hold  upon  your  in- 
terest and  your  sympathy.  It  was  not  as 
though  they  had  been  looking  forward  to 
this  hour  for  many  years,  until  it  had  lost 
its  first  meaning  and  was  now  the  payment 
for  a  long  period  of  apprenticeship,  until 
it  had  been  lived  so  often  in  anticipation 
that  when  it  came  it  was  only  a  form.  It 
was  not  as  though  he  had  grown  cynical 
and  stout,  and  she  gray-haired  and  hard- 
ened to  it  all ;  but,  instead,  she  looked  like 
a  bride  upon  her  wedding-day,  and  you 
could  see  in  his  face,  white  and  drawn  with 
hours  of  prayer ,  and  fasting,  and  in  the 
tears  that  wet  his  cheeks,  how  strongly  he 
was  moved,  and  you  could  imagine  what 
he  felt  when  he  looked  forward  into  the 
many  years  to  come  and  again  saw  himself 
as  he  was  at  that  moment,  a  boy  of  twenty- 
eight,  taking  in  his  hands  the  insignia  of 
64 


THE   CORONATION 


absolute  sovereignty  over  the  bodies  of  one 
hundred  million  people,  and  on  his  lips  the 
most  sacred  oaths  to  protect  the  welfare  of 
one  hundred  million  souls. 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT 
BUDAPEST 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT 
BUDAPEST 


THERE  were  two  great  state  ceremo- 
nials in  two  great  countries  last  year; 
one  was  advertised  in  every  tongue  that 
speaks  through  a  printing-press,  and  the 
fame  of  it  was  carried  by  word  of  mouth 
from  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  mountains 
of  Tibet,  from  Pekin  to  Melbourne,  and 
drew  four  hundred  thousand  strangers  to 
the  city  of  Moscow.  The  other  was  not 
advertised  at  all,  and  the  number  of  fortu- 
nate foreigners  who  found  it  out,  and  who 
journeyed  to  Budapest  to  witness  it,  could 
almost  have  been  counted  on  the  fingers 
of  two  hands.  The  Coronation  at  Mos- 
cow was  very   much   more    than   a  state 

ceremonial ;   it   was  planned  and  carried 

69 


THE  MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

out  with  the  purpose  of  impressing  other 
states.  It  marked  a  new  departure  in  the 
self-sufficient,  solitary  attitude  of  the  Rus- 
sian Empire,  and  apart  from  all  the  sol- 
emn significance  it  held  for  the  Russian 
people,  it  was  distinctly  a  play  at  the  royal 
boxes  of  Europe  and  the  grandstands  of 
the  world. 

The  millennial  celebration  at  Budapest, 
where  the  nobles  of  all  the  counties  of 
Hungary  met  to  swear  allegiance  to  the 
King  and  his  crown,  differed  from  it  as 
greatly  in  comparison  as  does  a  quiet  fam- 
ily wedding,  between  tvvo  people  who  love 
each  other  dearly,  differ  from  a  royal  alli- 
ance brought  about  for  political  reasons, 
and  the  importance  of  which  is  exagger- 
ated as  greatly  as  possible. 

This  gathering  of  the  clans  in  Hungary 
for  the  Banderium,  as  the  ceremony  was 
called,  was  probably  suggested  by  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Exposition  at  Budapest  and  by 
the  completion  of  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment in  that  city.  The  nobles  wished  to 
70 


THE  MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

take  advantage  of  the  presence  in  that 
double  capital  of  the  many  Hungarians 
who  had  been  brought  there  by  the  Expo- 
sition, and  to  signalize  the  initiation  of  the 
Houses  of  Parliament  by  some  extraor- 
dinary event ;  so  this  ceremony  which  cel- 
ebrated the  one  thousandth  year  of  the 
existence  of  Hungary  as  a  kingdom  was 
suggested,  and  later  was  carried  through 
in  a  manner  which  made  it  one  of  the  his- 
torical spectacles  of  the  century. 

Budapest,  as  everybody  knows,  is  formed 
of  two  cities,  separated  by  the  Danube,  and 
joined  together  like  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn by  great  bridges.  Buda  is  a  city  hun- 
dreds of  years  old,  and  rises  on  a  great 
hill  covered  with  yellow  houses  with  red- 
tiled  roofs,  and  surmounted  by  fortresses 
and  ancient  German  -  looking  castles,  and 
the  palace  of  the  King,  with  terraces  of 
marble  and  green  gardens  running  down 
to  meet  the  river.  It  still  is  a  picturesque, 
fortified  city  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Pesth,  just  across  the  way,  is  the  most 
71 


THE   MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

modern  city  in  Europe  ;  more  modern  than 
Paris,  better  paved,  and  better  lighted; 
with  better  facilities  for  rapid  transit  than 
New  York,  and  with  Houses  of  Parliament 
as  massive  and  impressive  as  those  on  the 
banks  of  the  Thames,  and  not  unlike  them 
in  appearance.  Pesth  is  the  Yankee  city 
of  the  Old  World,  just  as  the  Hungarians 
are  called  the  Americans  of  Europe.  It 
has  grown  in  forty  years,  and  it  has  sacri- 
ficed neither  beauty  of  space  nor  line  in 
growing.  It  has  magnificent  public  gar- 
dens, as  well  as  a  complete  fire  department; 
it  has  the  best  club  in  the  world,  the  Park 
Club  ;  and  it  has  found  time  to  put  electric 
tramways  underground,  and  to  rear  monu- 
ments to  poets,  orators,  and  patriots  above- 
ground.  People  in  Berlin  and  Vienna  tell 
you  that  some  day  all  of  these  things  will 
disappear  and  go  to  pieces,  that  Pesth  is 
enjoying  a  "  boom,"  and  that  the  boom  will 
pass  and  leave  only  the  buildings  and  elec- 
tric   plants    and    the    car  -  tracks,  with   no 

money  in  the  treasury  to  make  the  wheels 

72 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

go  round.  This  may  or  may  not  be  true, 
but  let  us  hope  it  is  only  the  envy  and  un- 
charitableness  of  the  Austrian  and  Ger- 
man mind  that  sees  nothing  in  progress 
but  disaster,  and  makes  advancement  spell 
ruin.  People  who  live  in  a  city  where  one 
is  asked  to  show  a  passport,  a  certificate  of 
good  health,  a  police  permit,  and  a  resi- 
dence-card in  order  to  be  allowed  to  mount 
a  bicycle,  as  I  was  asked  to  do  in  Berlin, 
can  hardly  be  expected  to  look  with  favor 
on  their  restless,  ambitious  young  neigh- 
bors of  the  Balkans. 

All  of  this,  however,  has  little  to  do  with 
the  Banderium,  except  that  it  is  interest- 
ing to  find  a  people  as  poetic  and  pict- 
uresque, and  as  easily  moved  as  are  the 
Hungarians,  showing  an  active  concern  in 
municipal  government,  in  the  latest  in- 
ventions in  hotel-elevators  and  smokeless 
powder ;  and  to  find  men  who  are  pushing 
Hungary  ahead  of  all  the  other  "  old-es- 
tablished "  monarchies  of  Europe,  and  who 
are  delighting  in   electric   tramways    and 

73 


THE   MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

horseless  carriages,  dressing  themselves  in 
the  chain -armor  of  their  ancestors,  and 
weeping  over  a  battered  gold  crown. 

The  descendants  of  the  men  who  fought 
for  what  is  now  Hungary,  and  what  was  a 
thousand  years  ago  many  separate  states 
and  provinces  and  principalities,  were  the 
men  who  formed  the  Banderium  last  June, 
and  who  swore  allegiance  to  the  crown 
which  Pope  Sylvester  VII.  gave  to  Prince 
Ithen  nine  centuries  before  they  were 
born. 

It  was  in  their  eyes  a  very  solemn  cere- 
mony, much  too  solemn  for  them  to  ad- 
vertise it  to  the  world,  as  they  had  adver- 
tised their  Exposition.  In  consequence,  few 
people  saw  the  spectacle,  and  it  has  passed 
away  almost  unchronicled,  which  is  most 
unfortunate,  as  all  of  those  who  took  part 
in  the  wonderful  pageant  will  have  been 
dust  for  some  nine  hundred  years  before 
there  will  be  another. 

The  Hungarian  nobles  who  were  to  ride 
in  the  procession,  the  dignitaries  of  the 

74 


THE  MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

Austrian  Court,  the  Diplomatic  Corps  from 
Vienna,  all  poured  into  Pesth  on  the  7th 
of  June. 

At  that  time  the  city  was  beautifully 
dressed  in  honor  of  their  coming.  Arches 
and  banners  shaded  the  streets,  and  grand- 
stands, covered  with  red  cloth  and  orna- 
mented with  fluttering  flags,  lined  the  route 
of  the  procession  from  the  new  Houses  of 
Parliament,  across  the  bridges,  up  the  green 
hill-sides  of  Buda  to  the  Emperor's  palace, 
where  the  nobles  were  to  pass  in  review 
before  marching  back  to  Pesth.  The  Ex- 
position had  already  filled  the  town  with 
Hungarians  and  Austrians,  and  every  hotel 
was  overcrowded,  and  every  cafe  chantant 
overflowed  upon  the  pavements,  and  the 
music  of  the  Tziganes  rose  and  fell  at  each 
street-corner.  Peasant  men  in  snow-white 
petticoats  and  high  boots  and  broad  som- 
breros, with  silver  buttons  on  their  coats 
and  waistcoats,  and  peasant  women  in  vel- 
vet bodices  and  gayly  colored  kerchiefs, 
filled  the  Exposition  grounds  and  paraded 
75 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

the  streets  in  groups  of  twenty  or  thirty 
from  each  village;  soldiers  in  skin-tight 
breeches,  and  gypsies  and  mountaineers, 
tanned  to  a  dark -red  brown,  with  short 
china  pipes  hanging  from  their  lips,  swag- 
gered past  in  national  costumes  that  have 
not  changed  in  so  much  as  the  matter  of  a 
red  sash,  or  a  silver  jacket,  or  an  embroid- 
ered cap,  from  what  they  were  a  hundred 
vears  a^o. 

The  visiting  strangers  made  their  head- 
quarters at  the  unique  club  of  which  I  have 
already  spoken ;  at  least,  they  met  there 
every  evening,  and  those  who  were  dining 
out  at  some  official  banquet  hurried  there 
as  soon  as  they  were  free.  It  was  a  most 
remarkable  club  and  a  most  remarkable 
gathering.  The  club  itself  is  the  hobby 
of  twTo  Hungarian  gentlemen,  and  they 
have  bestowed  as  much  thought  and  money 
upon  it  as  they  have  given  to  their  own 
homes.  Englishmen,  Frenchmen,  and  cos- 
mopolitans, from  all  over  the  world,  who 

have  seen  the  Union  and  the  new  Metro- 

76 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

politan  Clubs  in  New  York,  the  Jockey 
and  the  Union  in  Paris,  and  any  half-dozen 
clubs  in  London,  will  tell  you  that  in  no 
great  city  is  there  such  a  club  as  this  one, 
which  is  virtually  unknown,  and  lies  hidden 
away  in  the  outskirts  of  a  park  at  Pesth. 
It  stands  on  the  edge  of  the  woods,  and 
those  who  had  come  to  the  Banderium 
dined  each  night  on  its  broad  balconies 
and  lawns,  under  the  open  sky,  in  the  light 
of  the  wavering  candles,  which  showed  the 
faces  and  bright  dresses  and  the  jewels  of 
the  women  and  the  uniforms  of  the  men 
against  the  dark-green  background  of  the 
forest  about  them. 

Munkacsy,the  Hungarian  painter,  Count 
Teleki,  the  explorer,  tanned  with  the  fierc- 
est of  African  suns,  and  Kossuth,  a  de- 
scendant of  the  great  Kossuth,  were  among 
the  men  who  sat  every  evening  in  groups 
around  the  fairy-lamps.  With  them  were 
the  sons  and  grandsons  of  Andrassy,  Ap- 
ponyi,  Szechenyi,  names  that  are  as  highly 
honored  in   Hungary  as  are  those  of  our 

77 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

first  three  Presidents  with  us;  and  there 
was  a  stray  English  duke,  with  three  at- 
tendant peers,  who  had  received  a  hint  of 
the  ceremony  that  was  to  take  place  at 
Buda,  and  who  had  posted  in  hot  haste 
across  the  Channel  to  see  eleven  hundred 
noble  horses  ridden  by  eleven  hundred 
Hungarian  nobles.  There  was  the  Prince 
Liechtenstein,  just  returned  from  the  Coro- 
nation, with  new  honors  heavy  upon  him, 
and  Sir  Edmund  Monson,  the  English 
Ambassador  to  Vienna,  upon  whom  the 
honors  were  to  fall  a  month  later,  and  there 
were  lesser  diplomats  and  grizzled  old  gen- 
erals in  white  tunics,  and  boy  officers  in 
light  blue,  and  swells  in  tweed  suits  and 
nobodies  in  evening  dress.  It  was  a  most 
informal  and  charming  collection  of  people, 
and  they  all  seemed  to  know  one  another 
intimately,  and  acted  accordingly. 

Inside  the  club  there  was  a  great  ball- 
room, in  the  style  of  the  Second  Empire, 
and  reading-rooms  and  libraries  with  walls 
of  red -morocco  books,  and  vast  banquet- 
78 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

ing-halls,  and  rooms  for  whist  and  silence, 
or  for  the  more  noisy  games  of  roulette 
and  the  petits  chevaux.  It  was  a  succes- 
sion of  lessons  in  good  taste,  even  while  it 
made  you  gasp  at  the  money  it  must  have 
cost  somebody  —  certainly  not  the  club 
members,  for  they  are  too  few,  and  the 
club  is  too  inaccessible  for  them  to  spend 
much  of  their  time  or  money  there.  It  ap- 
pears to  be  just  what  it  is,  the  hobby  of 
two  rich  men,  who  have  robbed  the  bric-a- 
brac  shops  of  Europe  to  make  it  beautiful, 
and  who  have  searched  every  club  to  get 
the  best  ash-tray,  the  best  hand-bell,  the 
best  cook,  and  the  best  musician. 

They  did  not  have  to  leave  Budapest  to 
find  the  musician.  His  name  is  Berkes, 
and  no  one  who  has  not  been  to  Budapest 
or  to  Vienna  has  ever  heard  him,  for  the 
Hungarians  say  naively  that  were  he  to 
leave  them  and  play  elsewhere  they  would 
never  be  able  to  get  him  back  again,  as 
those  who  heard  him  once  would  keep 
him  with  them  forever.     He  is  the  king 

79 


THE  MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

of  the  gypsy  musicians  and  the  master  of 
their  melody.  His  violin  seems  to  be  just 
as  much  a  part  of  him  as  are  his  arms  or 
his  eyes  or  his  heart.  When  he  plays,  his 
body  seems  to  stop  at  the  neck,  and  he 
appears  to  draw  all  of  his  strength  and 
feeling  from  the  violin  in  his  hands,  the 
rest  of  him  being  merely  a  support  for  his 
head  and  his  instrument.  He  has  curious 
eyes,  like  those  of  a  Scotch  collie — sad, 
and  melancholy,  and  pleading — and  when 
he  plays  they  grow  glazed  and  drunken- 
looking,  like  those  of  an  absinthe  drinker, 
and  tears  roll  from  them  to  the  point  of 
his  short  beard  and  wet  the  wood  of  his 
violin.  His  music  probably  affects  differ- 
ent people  according  to  their  nerves,  but 
it  is  as  moving  as  any  great  passage  in 
any  noble  book,  or  in  any  great  play, 
and  while  it  lasts  he  holds  people  abso- 
lutely in  a  spell,  so  that  when  the  music 
ceases  women  burst  into  tears,  and  I 
have    seen    men    jump   to   their  feet  and 

empty  the  contents  of  their  pockets  into 

80 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

his  lap;  and  they  are  so  sure  to  do  this 
that  their  servants  take  their  money  away 
from  them  when  they  are  dressing  to  dine 
at  some  house  where  Berkes  is  announced 
to  play.  One  night  a  Frenchman  dipped 
a  two-thousand-franc  note  into  a  glass  of 
champagne  and  pasted  it  on  the  back  of 
the  man's  violin,  and  the  next  day  Berkes 
sent  it  back  to  him  again,  saying  that  to 
have  this  compliment  paid  him  by  a  for- 
eigner in  the  presence  of  his  countrymen 
was  worth  more  to  him  than  the  money. 

The  Hungarian  music  is  typical  of  the 
people,  who  are  full  of  feeling  and  moved 
by  sudden  gusts  of  passion.  To  a  nation 
of  a  calmer  and  more  phlegmatic  nature, 
the  ceremony  of  the  Banderium  could  not 
have  meant  so  much,  nor  would  they  have 
taken  it  so  seriously ;  but  to  the  Hunga- 
rians, who  cherish  the  independence  of 
their  kingdom,  and  who  never  speak  of 
Francis  Joseph  as  the  Emperor,  but  as  the 
King  of  Hungary,  this  swearing  allegiance 
to  the  crown  was  a  ceremony  heavy  with 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

meaning,  and  surrounded  by  the  most  sa- 
cred traditions  of  the  life  of  the  nation  and 
of  their  own  families. 

It  was  interesting  in  consequence  to  see 
the  same  blase  young  men  who  the  night 
before  at  the  Park  Club  had  discussed  the 
only  way  to  break  the  bank  at  Monte 
Carlo,  dressed  the  next  morning  in  the 
clothes  that  their  ancestors  had  wrorn,  or 
in  others  like  them,  carrying  the  same  ban- 
ners under  which  their  great-grandfathers 
had  fought,  weeping  with  emotion  around 
a  battered  gold  crown  studded  with  old 
stones,  and  cheering  their  King,  who,  not 
many  years  before,  had  sentenced  some  of 
the  very  nobles  before  him  to  death. 

You  cannot  imagine  Americans  or  Eng- 
lishmen doing  the  same  thing ;  in  the  first 
place,  they  have  no  national  costume,  should 
they  wish  to  put  one  on ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  their  fear  of  ridicule  or  their  sense  of 
humor,  which  is  sometimes  the  same  thing, 
would  keep  them  from  wearing  it  if  they 

had.     But  there  was  nothing  ridiculous  in 

82 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

what  these  Hungarians  did.  They  were 
too  much  in  earnest  and  they  were  too  sin- 
cere. Later,  when  I  met  some  of  them  in 
London  in  varnished  boots  and  frock-coats, 
I  wondered  if  they  could  possibly  be  the 
same  men  I  had  seen  prancing  around  on 
horses  covered  with  harnesses  of  silver  and 
turquoise,  and  themselves  dressed  in  bro- 
cades and  in  silk  tights,  with  fur-trimmed 
coats  and  velvet  tunics.  But  at  the  time 
it  seemed  a  most  appropriate  costume,  for 
one  knew  they  were  merely  carrying  out 
the  traditions  of  their  family,  and  that  they 
did  not  wear  these  particular  clothes  be- 
cause they  were  beautiful  or  becoming,  but 
because  they  were  the  costume,  not  only 
of  their  country  but  of  their  race,  and  as 
much  a  part  of  their  family  history  as  an 
Englishman's  coat  of  arms,  and  because 
once,  long  before,  one  of  their  name  had 
fought  in  a  similar  costume  and  stained  its 
brocade  with  blood. 

The  day  of  the  ceremony  was  as  beau- 
tiful as  blue  skies  and  a  warm,  brilliant  sun 
83 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT   BUDAPEST 

could  help  to  make  it,  and  a  soft  summer 
breeze  shook  out  the  flags  and  banners, 
and  stirred  the  leaves  upon  the  great  hill 
on  which  Buda  stands,  and  ruffled  the  sur- 
face of  the  Danube  so  that  it  flashed  like 
a  thousand  heliographs.  In  the  streets 
were  hurrying  groups  of  gayly  dressed 
peasants,  fine  stalwart  men  and  simple, 
kindly  faced  women,  and  pretty  girls  of  a 
dark,  gypsy  type,  with  black  eyes,  and  red 
lips  with  that  peculiar  curve  which  leaves 
the  white  teeth  bare.  Soldiers  of  the  Em- 
pire stood  at  ease  along  the  quaint  streets 
of  clean,  round  cobble-stones  and  yellow- 
faced  houses,  each  marking  the  holiday 
with  an  oak  leaf  in  his  cap  or  helmet. 
There  was  no  crowding  or  pushing,  but 
everywhere  excellent  good  -  humor  and 
good  feeling,  and  from  time  to  time  bursts 
of  patriotic  pride  as  a  state  carriage,  or 
some  body  of  horsemen,  passed  to  take  a 
place  in  the  procession. 

The  King's  palace  stands  on  the  top  of 
the  hill  of  Buda,  and  the  tribunes  for  the 
s4 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

diplomats  and  the  cabinet  face  the  court- 
yard of  the  palace,  making  the  fourth  side 
of  the  square  in  which  the  riders  were 
to  pass  in  review  before  the  Emperor.  It 
was  more  like  a  private  garden-party  than 
a  national  celebration,  for  every  one  in  the 
tribunes  seemed  to  know  every  one  in  the 
streets  below,  and  the  spectators  moved 
about,  and  talked  and  criticised,  and  named 
each  new  arrival  as  he  or  she  drove  up  to 
the  doors  of  the  great  gray  palace  oppo- 
site. The  sun  beat  down  with  a  little  too 
much  vigor,  but  it  showed  every  uniform 
at  its  best,  and  it  flashed  on  the  jewels  and 
on  the  sword-blades  of  the  attendant  caval- 
ry, and  filled  the  air  with  color  and  light. 

Then  the  Emperor  stepped  out  upon  the 
balcony  of  the  palace  and  saluted,  and  the 
people  arose  and  remained  standing  until 
one  of  the  archduchesses,  a  little  girl  in 
pink,  and  the  Empress,  in  deep  black,  had 
taken  their  places  beside  him,  and  the 
members  of  the  Court,  the  women  in  the 
national  costume  of  Hungary  and  the  men 
85 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

in  military  uniforms,  had  grouped  them- 
selves back  of  these  three  figures,  and  had 
crowded  the  windows  so  that  the  old  palace 
bloomed  like  the  wall  of  an  Oxford  college 
when  the  window -gardens  are  gorgeous 
with  color,  and  stand  out  from  the  gray 
stone  like  orchids  on  the  limb  of  a  dead 
tree.  In  the  procession  that  followed  there 
were  eleven  hundred  mounted  men  in  silks, 
in  armor,  in  furs,  and  in  cloth  of  gold,  and 
many  state  carnages  gilded  and  enamelled, 
and  decorated  with  coats  of  arms  and  vel- 
vet trappings. 

It  would  have  been  too  theatrical  and 
fantastic  had  it  not  been  that  it  was  an 
historical  pageant,  and  correct  in  every 
detail,  and  that  the  fairy  princes  were  real 
princes,  the  jewels  real  jewels,  and  the  fur 
the  same  fur  that  a  few  months  before  had 
covered  a  wolf  or  a  bear  in  the  mountains 
of  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina,  which  had 
been  hunted  by  these  same  men  who  now 
wore  their  skins.  For  an  hour  the  nobles 
passed  in  dazzling,  glittering  groups,  each 

86 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

rivalling  the  next,  and  all  making  one  long 
line  of  color  that  wound  along  the  shady 
streets,  in  and  out  upon  the  hill-side,  and 
down  across  the  great  ridge  like  a  many- 
colored  scarf  of  silk  and  gold.  Each  group 
was  preceded  by  its  banner,  and  each 
standard-bearer  was  accompanied  by  her- 
alds on  foot,  and  by  attendant  squires  on 
horseback,  dressed  in  the  colors  of  the 
province  or  burgh  or  municipality  from 
which  they  came. 

There  was  no  regular  uniform,  and  the 
costumes  varied  from  the  days  of  the  Iron 
Age  to  those  of  Maria  Theresa,  who  had 
given  some  of  the  same  uniforms  we  saw 
that  day  to  the  forefathers  of  the  men  who 
wore  them.  But  in  the  dresses  of  the  later 
centuries  there  was  a  certain  uniformity, 
and  although  the  materials  and  colors  dif- 
fered greatly,  the  fashion  was  the  same. 
There  was  a  long  shirt  of  silk  or  satin,  silk 
tights  embroidered  with  gold  or  silver,  high 
boots  of  colored  leather,  and  a  sleeveless 
cloak  of  brocade  or  velvet,  trimmed  with 
87 


THE    MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

fur.  The  cap  was  of  velvet  surrounded 
with  fur,  with  an  aigrette  in  front  orna- 
mented with  diamonds.  The  greater  num- 
ber of  the  horses  were  magnificent  black 
stallions,  with  as  distinguished  pedigrees  as 
those  of  the  men  who  rode  them,  and  their 
trappings  were  as  rich  as  those  worn  by 
their  masters.  The  average  cost  of  each 
rider's  uniform,  and  of  the  harness  for  his 
horse,  was  five  thousand  dollars  ;  some  sin- 
gle costumes,  on  account  of  the  jewels, 
were  worth  many  times  that  sum.  The 
state  contributed  nothing  to  this  spectacle ; 
each  rider  paid  for  his  carriage  and  for  the 
equipment  of  his  horses  and  attendants. 

Of  course  there  were  many  features  of 
the  procession  which  stirred  the  hearts 
and  memories  of  the  native  spectators,  but 
which  were  lost  on  the  stranger — certain 
devices  on  the  banners,  certain  uniforms 
that  recalled  a  great  victory,  or  some  pe- 
culiarity of  decoration  or  weapon  that  none 
but  the  descendants  of  a  certain  family,  or 
the  inhabitants  of  a  particular  village,  were 


THE   MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

allowed  to  bear.  But  the  spectacle  as  a 
spectacle  could  be  appreciated  by  any  one, 
whether  he  knew  the  history  of  Hungary 
or  not.  Those  Englishmen  present  who 
had  seen  the  Queen's  Jubilee  procession 
in  1887  said  that  the  Banderium  was  much 
finer,  and  those  who  had  witnessed  the 
entry  of  the  Czar  into  Moscow  found  it, 
if  not  so  impressive,  at  least  as  beautiful. 
The  Czar's  entry  was  a  modern  military 
pageant,  the  Banderium  was  a  moving 
panorama,  an  illustration  of  the  history  of 
Hungary  by  some  of  the  very  men  them- 
selves who  had  helped  to  make  it,  or  by 
their  sons  and  grandsons. 

There  were  so  many  different  combina- 
tions of  color  that  it  is  impossible  to  select 
any  one  as  being  much  more  beautiful  than 
the  others.  In  one  notable  group  the  men 
wore  canary  yellow  silk  from  head  to  foot, 
trimmed  heavily  with  silver.  Their  boots 
w7ere  yellow,  their  capes  were  yellow,  and 
the  tall  plumes  in  their  peaked  caps  were 

yellow;    another  group  wore  gray  velvet 

89 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT   BUDAPEST 

with  gray  fur  and  silver ;  another,  purple 
velvet  with  gold ;  another,  blue  velvet  with 
ermine  and  silver.  There  were  never  more 
than  twenty  men  at  the  most  in  any  group; 
sometimes  there  would  be  but  five  or  six, 
but  the  costume  of  each  one  was  as  rich, 
whether  he  rode  or  walked,  as  any  court 
dress  of  any  emperor  of  Europe.  The 
horses  were  covered  with  velvet  saddle- 
cloths, heavy  with  jewels  and  gold  and 
silver  ornaments.  Some  were  hung  from 
the  head  to  the  tail  with  strings  of  gold 
coins  that  one  could  hear  jangling  for  a 
hundred  yards  as  they  advanced  stamping 
and  tossing  their  heads,  and  others  were 
covered  with  leopard  and  tiger  skins,  or 
with  a  harness  of  red  morocco  leather,  or 
with  blue  turquoises  that  lay  in  beautiful 
contrast  upon  the  snow-white  coat  and 
mane.  Some  of  the  provinces  which  dated 
back  to  the  be2finnin^  of  civilization  were 
represented  by  men  with  the  arms  of  the 
days  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals,  and   the 

fierce  simplicity  of  their  appearance  made 
90 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

the  silks  and  satins  of  those  next  in  line 
seem  foolish  and  theatrical.  These  de- 
scendants of  the  earliest  warriors  were 
perhaps  the  most  effective  figures  in  the 
procession.  Some  of  them  wore  black 
armor,  some  gold,  some  silver,  and  others 
the  plain  steel  shirt  of  chain-armor,  which 
clung  to  them  like  a  woollen  jersey.  Their 
legs  were  bound  with  raw  leather  thongs, 
and  on  their  heads  they  wore  steel  casques, 
with  a  bar  of  steel  running  from  the  helmet 
to  the  chin  to  protect  the  face  from  sword- 
thrusts,  and  each  rider  held  before  him  a 
great  spear,  from  each  side  of  which  sprout- 
ed black  eagle's  feathers.  There  was  some- 
thing so  grim  and  fierce  in  their  appear- 
ance that  the  crowd  along  the  sidewalks 
stood  awed  as  they  passed  and  then  burst 
into  the  most  enthusiastic  cheers  that  were 
heard  that  day. 

From  the  palace  the  procession  counter- 
marched to  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and 
in  its  central  chamber  the  heads  of  each 
deputation  gathered  around  the  crown  and 
91 


THE  MILLENNIAL   CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

swore  allegiance  to  it.  But  it  was  signifi- 
cant that  they  swore  this  allegiance  when 
the  crown  was  resting  on  a  cushion  in  their 
new  Houses  of  Constitutional  Liberty  and 
not  in  a  palace  on  the  head  of  a  king.  That 
ceremony  came  later  when  they  returned 
again  to  the  palace  in  Buda,  and  the  Em- 
peror addressed  them,  and  they  interrupted 
his  speech  from  the  throne  with  cheer  after 
cheer.  Some  of  these  men  present  were 
those  whom  early  in  his  reign  the  Emperor 
had  sentenced  to  death,  but  whose  fealty 
and  admiration  he  had  won  later  by  his 
own  personality  and  tact  and  goodness  of 
heart.  It  was  a  curious  spectacle  —  these 
white-haired  noblemen,  tall,  proud,  and 
fierce-eyed,  looking  in  their  velvet  and  furs 
and  golden  chains  like  living  portraits  of 
the  old  masters,  waving  their  jewelled  caps 
at  the  little  unkingly  Emperor  in  his  col- 
onel's uniform,  padded  and  tightly  laced, 
and  with  smug  side-whiskers,  like  an  Eng- 
lish inspector  of  police.     There  was  the 

contrast  in  it  of  the  chivalry  and  dash  and 

92 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

poetry  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with  the  consti- 
tutional law-abiding  monarchy  of  modern 
times. 

And  one  wondered  as  to  what  will  follow 
when  Francis  Joseph  passes  away ! 

Will  they  cheer  an  archduke  as  they 
cheered  him,  with  the  tears  rolling  down 
their  cheeks  ? 

One  asks,  "  What  has  an  Austrian  arch- 
duke done  for  Hungary,  for  Austria,  or 
for  himself  even  ?  Does  any  one  in  the 
United  States  know  the  names  of  these 
archdukes  or  archduchesses  ?  Has  he  ever 
heard  of  them  or  read  of  them  ?"  Of  course 
he  has  never  seen  them,  because  they  con- 
stitute "the  most  exclusive  Court  in  Eu- 
rope." That  has  always  been  their  boast, 
as  it  will  be  their  epitaph.  They  are  the 
most  exclusive  Court  in  Europe,  so  exclu- 
sive that  they  have  not  tried  to  learn  the 
language  of  the  twin  monarchy  of  Hun- 
gary, nor  sought  by  any  deed  or  act  to  win 
the  regard  or  respect  of  the  sixteen  millions 
of  people  over  whom  some  day  they  hope 

93 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

to  reign.  They  are  like  a  colony  of  people 
who  hide  themselves  from  the  rest  of  the 
world  in  a  deep  wood  and  say  to  each  other, 
"  Look  how  exclusive  we  are  !  There  is  no 
one  in  this  wood  but  ourselves  " ;  and  who, 
by  repeating  their  own  names  daily  and 
talking  of  no  one  but  themselves,  have 
learned  to  think  that  they  are  the  people 
of  greatest  consequence  in  the  world,  when, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  world  outside  of  the 
wood  is  going  about  its  business  in  the  sun- 
shine, working  and  scheming  and  pushing 
ahead,  forgetting  that  the  most  exclusive 
Court  of  Europe  exists.  We  know  a  little 
of  the  princes  of  other  countries,  and  even 
of  the  pretenders,  for  they  do  something. 
They  explore  Africa  or  Tibet ;  they  open 
hospitals  or  race  yachts  or  win  a  Derby ; 
they  are  .at  least  picturesque  and  orna- 
mental, and  it  is  pleasant  to  see  them  ride 
by  in  fine  clothes  and  with  mounted  es- 
corts. 

I  once  heard  an  American  tourist  say  to 
a  British  workman  outside  of  St.  James's 

94 


THE   MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

Palace  on  a  Levee  day:  "And  I  suppose 
you  pay  taxes  to  support  this?"  The 
workman  said  :  "  Yes,  it  costs  me  about  six- 
pence a  year.  Isn't  it  worth  the  money  ?" 
And  the  American,  becoming  suddenly 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  he  had  been 
standing  for  two  hours  watching  the  show 
of  royalty,  and  that  it  had  not  cost  him 
even  sixpence,  was  honest  enough  to  own 
that  it  was. 

But  what  excuse  have  the  Austrian  roy- 
alties ever  offered  for  their  right  to  exist? 
It  is  not  quite  enough  that  they  have  six- 
teen quarterings,  and  that  they  are  exclu- 
sive, and  only  come  out  of  their  highly 
polished  shells  once  in  a  great  while,  when 
one  of  them  shocks  half  of  Europe  with  a 
horrible  scandal  or  a  silly  marriage.  For 
it  is  only  when  such  things  happen  that  we 
learn  anything  of  the  most  exclusive  Court 
in  Europe  —  when  one  of  its  archdukes 
tramps  a  stable-boy  under  his  horse's  hoofs, 
or  comes  out  of  the  wood  into  the  world — 
to  marry  a  dancing-girl. 

95 


THE  MILLENNIAL  CELEBRATION  AT  BUDAPEST 

Perhaps  the  eleven  hundred  men  who 
represented  all  of  Hungary  at  the  millen- 
nial celebration  will  cheer  one  of  these 
archdukes  when  he  comes  to  the  throne. 
But  it  may  be  that  when  the  time  comes 
they  will  prefer  a  king  who  can  speak  their 
own  language,  and  that  we  may  hear  them 
cheer  one  of  their  own  people. 


CUBA   IN   WAR-TIME 


CUBA   IN   WAR-TIME 


I.-THE    DEATH  OF   RODRIGUEZ 

ADOLFO  RODRIGUEZ  was  the 
only  son  of  a  Cuban  farmer,  who 
lives  nine  miles  outside  of  Santa  Clara, 
beyond  the  hills  that  surround  that  city 
to  the  north. 

When  the  revolution  broke  out  young 
Rodriguez  joined  the  insurgents,  leaving 
his  father  and  mother  and  two  sisters  at 
the  farm.  He  was  taken,  in  December  of 
1896,  by  a  force  of  the  Guardia  Civile,  the 
corps  d  elite  of  the  Spanish  army,  and  de- 
fended himself  when  they  tried  to  capture 
him,  wounding  three  of  them  with  his  ma- 
chete. 

He  was  tried  by  a  military  court  for 
bearing  arms  against  the  government,  and 
99 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

sentenced  to  be  shot  by  a  fusillade  some 
morning  before  sunrise. 

Previous  to  execution  he  was  confined 
in  the  military  prison  of  Santa  Clara  with 
thirty  other  insurgents,  all  of  whom  were 
sentenced  to  be  shot,  one  after  the  other, 
on  mornings  following  the  execution  of 
Rodriguez. 

His  execution  took  place  the  morning  of 
the  19th  of  January,  1897,  at  a  place  a  half- 
mile  distant  from  the  city,  on  the  great 
plain  that  stretches  from  the  forts  out  to 
the  hills,  beyond  which  Rodriguez  had 
lived  for  nineteen  years.  At  the  time  of 
his  death  he  was  twenty  years  old. 

I  witnessed  his  execution,  and  what  fol- 
lows is  an  account  of  the  way  he  went  to 
death.  The  young  man's  friends  could  not 
be  present,  for  it  was  impossible  for  them 
to  show  themselves  in  that  crowd  and  that 
place  with  wisdom  or  without  distress,  and 
I  like  to  think  that,  although  Rodriguez 
could  not  know  it,  there  was  one  person 
present  when  he  died  who  felt  keenly  for 

IOQ 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

him,  and  who  was  a  sympathetic  though 
unwilling  spectator. 

There  had  been  a  full  moon  the  night 
preceding  the  execution,  and  when  the 
squad  of  soldiers  marched  out  from  town 
it  was  still  shining  brightly  through  the 
mists,  although  it  was  past  five  o'clock. 
It  lighted  a  plain  two  miles  in  extent, 
broken  by  ridges  and  gullies  and  covered 
with  thick,  high  grass,  and  with  bunches 
of  cactus  and  palmetto.  In  the  hollow  of 
the  ridges  the  mist  lay  like  broad  lakes  of 
water,  and  on  one  side  of  the  plain  stood 
the  walls  of  the  old  town.  On  the  other 
rose  hills  covered  with  royal  palms  that 
showed  white  in  the  moonlight,  like  hun- 
dreds of  marble  columns.  A  line  of  tiny 
camp-fires  that  the  sentries  had  built  dur- 
ing the  night  stretched  between  the  forts 
at  regular  intervals  and  burned  brightly. 

But  as  the  light  grew  stronger  and  the 
moonlight  faded  these  were  stamped  out, 
and  when  the  soldiers  came  in  force  the 
moon  was  a  white  ball  in  the  sky,  without 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

radiance,  the  fires  had  sunk  to  ashes,  and 
the  sun  had  not  yet  risen. 

So  even  when  the  men  were  formed  into 
three  sides  of  a  hollow  square,  they  were 
scarcely  able  to  distinguish  one  another  in 
the  uncertain  light  of  the  morning. 

There  were  about  three  hundred  soldiers 
in  the  formation.  They  belonged  to  the 
volunteers,  and  they  deployed  upon  the 
plain  with  their  band  in  front  playing  a 
jaunty  quickstep,  while  their  officers  gal- 
loped from  one  side  to  the  other  through 
the  grass,  seeking  out  a  suitable  place  for 
the  execution,  while  the  band  outside  the 
line  still  played  merrily. 

A  few  men  and  boys,  who  had  been 
dragged  out  of  their  beds  by  the  music, 
moved  about  the  ridges  behind  the  sol- 
diers, half -clothed,  unshaven,  sleepy-eyed, 
yawning,  and  stretching  themselves  ner- 
vously and  shivering  in  the  cool,  damp  air 
of  the  morning. 

Either  owing  to  discipline  or  on  account 
of  the  nature  of  their  errand,  or  because 

I02 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

the  men  were  still  but  half  awake,  there 
was  no  talking  in  the  ranks,  and  the  sol- 
diers stood  motionless,  leaning  on  their 
rifles,  with  their  backs  turned  to  the  town, 
looking  out  across  the  plain  to  the  hills. 

The  men  in  the  crowd  behind  them  were 
also  grimly  silent.  They  knew  that  what- 
ever they  might  say  would  be  twisted  into 
a  word  of  sympathy  for  the  condemned 
man  or  a  protest  against  the  government. 
So  no  one  spoke;  even  the  officers  gave 
their  orders  in  gruff  whispers,  and  the  men 
in  the  crowd  did  not  mix  together,  but 
looked  suspiciously  at  one  another  and 
kept  apart. 

As  the  light  increased  a  mass  of  people 
came  hurrying  from  the  town  with  two 
black  figures  leading  them,  and  the  sol- 
diers drew  up  at  attention,  and  part  of  the 
double  line  fell  back  and  left  an  opening 
in  the  square. 

With  us  a  condemned  man  walks  only 
the  short  distance  from  his  cell  to  the  scaf- 
fold or  the  electric  chair,  shielded  from  sight 
103 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

by  the  prison  walls,  and  it  often  occurs  even 
then  that  the  short  journey  is  too  much  for 
his  strength  and  courage. 

But  the  merciful  Spaniards  on  this  morn- 
ing made  the  prisoner  walk  for  over  a  half- 
mile  across  the  broken  surface  of  the  fields. 
I  expected  to  find  the  man,  no  matter  what 
his  strength  at  other  times  might  be,  stum- 
bling and  faltering  on  this  cruel  journey ; 
but  as  he  came  nearer  I  saw  that  he  led  all 
the  others,  that  the  priests  on  either  side 
of  him  were  taking  two  steps  to  his  one, 
and  that  they  were  tripping  on  their  gowns 
and  stumbling  over  the  hollows  in  their 
efforts  to  keep  pace  with  him  as  he  walked, 
erect  and  soldierly,  at  a  quick  step  in  ad- 
vance of  them. 

He  had  a  handsome,  gentle  face  of  the 
peasant  type,  a  light,  pointed  beard,  great 
wistful  eyes,  and  a  mass  of  curly  black  hair. 
He  was  shockingly  young  for  such  a  sacri- 
fice, and  looked  more  like  a  Neapolitan  than 
a  Cuban.     You  could  imagine  him  sitting 

on  the  quay  at  Naples  or  Genoa,  lolling  in 
104 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

the  sun  and  showing  his  white  teeth  when 
he  laughed.  He  wore  a  new  scapular  around 
his  neck,  hanging  outside  his  linen  blouse. 

It  seems  a  petty  thing  to  have  been 
pleased  with  at  such  a  time,  but  I  confess 
to  have  felt  a  thrill  of  satisfaction  when  I 
saw,  as  the  Cuban  passed  me,  that  he  held 
a  cigarette  between  his  lips,  not  arrogantly 
nor  with  bravado,  but  with  the  nonchalance 
of  a  man  who  meets  his  punishment  fear- 
lessly, and  who  will  let  his  enemies  see  that 
they  can  kill  but  cannot  frighten  him. 

It  was  very  quickly  finished,  with  rough 
and,  but  for  one  frightful  blunder,  with 
merciful  swiftness.  The  crowd  fell  back 
when  it  came  to  the  square,  and  the  con- 
demned man,  the  priests,  and  the  firing 
squad  of  six  young  volunteers  passed  in 
and  the  line  closed  behind  them. 

The  officer  who  had  held  the  cord  that 
bound  the  Cuban's  arms  behind  him  and 
passed  across  his  breast  let  it  fall  on  the 
grass  and  drew  his  sword,  and  Rodriguez 

dropped  his  cigarette  from  his  lips  and  bent 
105 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

and  kissed  the  cross  which  the  priest  held 
up  before  him. 

The  elder  of  the  priests  moved  to  one 
side  and  prayed  rapidly  in  a  loud  whisper, 
while  the  other,  a  younger  man,  walked 
away  behind  the  firing  squad  and  covered 
his  face  with  his  hands  and  turned  his  back. 
They  had  both  spent  the  last  twelve  hours 
with  Rodriguez  in  the  chapel  of  the  prison. 

The  Cuban  walked  to  where  the  officer 
directed  him  to  stand,  and  turned  his  back 
to  the  square  and  faced  the  hills  and  the 
road  across  them,  which  led  to  his  father's 
farm. 

As  the  officer  gave  the  first  command 
he  straightened  himself  as  far  as  the  cords 
would  allow,  and  held  up  his  head  and  fixed 
his  eyes  immovably  on  the  morning  light, 
which  had  just  begun  to  show  above  the 
hills. 

He  made  a  picture  of  such  pathetic  help- 
lessness, but  of  such  courage  and  dignity, 
that  he  reminded  me  on  the  instant  of  that 

statue  of  Nathan  Hale  which  stands  in  the 
1 06 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

City  Hall  Park,  above  the  roar  of  Broad- 
way, and  teaches  a  lesson  daily  to  the  hur- 
rying crowds  of  money-makers  who  pass 
beneath. 

The  Cuban's  arms  were  bound,  as  are 
those  of  the  statue,  and  he  stood  firmly, 
with  his  weight  resting  on  his  heels  like  a 
soldier  on  parade,  and  with  his  face  held 
up  fearlessly,  as  is  that  of  the  statue.  But 
there  was  this  difference,  that  Rodriguez, 
while  probably  as  willing  to  give  six  lives 
for  his  country  as  was  the  American  rebel, 
being  only  a  peasant,  did  not  think  to  say 
so,  and  he  will  not,  in  consequence,  live  in 
bronze  during  the  lives  of  many  men,  but 
will  be  remembered  only  as  one  of  thirty 
Cubans,  one  of  whom  was  shot  at  Santa 
Clara  on  each  succeeding  day  at  sunrise. 

The  officer  had  given  the  order,  the  men 
had  raised  their  pieces,  and  the  condemned 
man  had  heard  the  clicks  of  the  triggers  as 
they  were  pulled  back,  and  he  had  not 
moved.  And  then  happened  one  of  the 
most  cruelly  refined,  though  unintentional, 
107 


CUBA   IN   WAR-TIME 

acts  of  torture  that  one  can  very  well  im- 
agine. As  the  officer  slowly  raised  his 
sword,  preparatory  to  giving  the  signal, 
one  of  the  mounted  officers  rode  up  to  him 
and  pointed  out  silently  what  I  had  already 
observed  with  some  satisfaction,  that  the 
firing  squad  were  so  placed  that  when  they 
fired  they  would  shoot  several  of  the  sol- 
diers stationed  on  the  extreme  end  of  the 
square. 

Their  captain  motioned  his  men  to  low- 
er their  pieces,  and  then  walked  across  the 
grass  and  laid  his  hand  on  the  shoulder  of 
the  waiting  prisoner. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  think  what  that 
shock  must  have  been.  The  man  had 
steeled  himself  to  receive  a  volley  of  bullets 
in  his  back.  He  believed  that  in  the  next 
instant  he  would  be  in  another  world;  he 
had  heard  the  command  given,  had  heard 
the  click  of  the  Mausers  as  the  locks 
caught — and  then,  at  that  supreme  mo- 
ment, a  human  hand  had  been  laid  upon 
his  shoulder  and  a  voice  spoke  in  his  ear. 

108 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

You  would  expect  that  any  man  who 
had  been  snatched  back  to  life  in  such  a 
fashion  would  start  and  tremble  at  the  re- 
prieve, or  would  break  down  altogether, 
but  this  boy  turned  his  head  steadily,  and 
followed  with  his  eyes  the  direction  of  the 
officer's  sword,  then  nodded  his  head 
gravely,  and,  with  his  shoulders  squared, 
took  up  a  new  position,  straightened  his 
back  again,  and  once  more  held  himself 
erect. 

As  an  exhibition  of  self-control  this 
should  surely  rank  above  feats  of  heroism 
performed  in  battle,  where  there  are  thou- 
sands of  comrades  to  give  inspiration. 
This  man  was  alone,  in  the  sight  of  the 
hills  he  knew,  with  only  enemies  about 
him,  with  no  source  to  draw  on  for  strength 
but  that  which  lay  within  himself. 

The  officer  of  the  firing  squad,  mortified 

by  his    blunder,    hastily  whipped    up    his 

sword,  the  men  once  more  levelled  their 

rifles,   the    sword    rose,  dropped,  and    the 

men    fired.     At   the    report   the    Cuban's 
109 


CUBA   IN   WAR-TIME 

head  snapped  back  almost  between  his 
shoulders,  but  his  body  fell  slowly,  as 
though  some  one  had  pushed  him  gently 
forward  from  behind  and  he  had  stumbled. 

He  sank  on  his  side  in  the  wet  grass 
without  a  struggle  or  sound,  and  did  not 
move  again. 

It  was  difficult  to  believe  that  he  meant 
to  lie  there,  that  it  could  be  ended  so  with- 
out a  word,  that  the  man  in  the  linen  suit 
would  not  get  up  on  his  feet  and  continue 
to  walk  on  over  the  hills,  as  he  apparently 
had  started  to  do,  to  his  home ;  that  there 
was  not  a  mistake  somewhere,  or  that  at 
least  some  one  would  be  sorry  or  say  some- 
thing or  run  to  pick  him  up. 

But,  fortunately,  he  did  not  need  help, 
and  the  priests  returned — the  younger  one 
with  the  tears  running  down  his  face — and 
donned  their  vestments  and  read  a  brief 
requiem  for  his  soul,  while  the  squad  stood 
uncovered,  and  the  men  in  hollow  square 
shook  their  accoutrements  into  place,  and 
shifted  their  pieces  and  got  ready  for  the 


CUBA    IN  WAR-TIME 

order  to  march,  and  the  band  began  again 
with  the  same  quickstep  which  the  fusillade 
had  interrupted. 

The  figure  still  lay  on  the  grass  un- 
touched, and  no  one  seemed  to  remember 
that  it  had  walked  there  of  itself,  or  noticed 
that  the  cigarette  still  burned,  a  tiny  ring 
of  living  fire,  at  the  place  where  the  figure 
had  first  stood. 

The  figure  was  a  thing  of  the  past,  and 
the  squad  shook  itself  like  a  great  snake, 
and  then  broke  into  little  pieces  and  started 
off  jauntily,  stumbling  in  the  high  grass 
and  striving  to  keep  step  to  the  music. 

The  officers  led  it  past  the  figure  in  the 
linen  suit,  and  so  close  to  it  that  the  file 
closers  had  to  part  with  the  column  to  avoid 
treading  on  it.  Each  soldier  as  he  passed 
turned  and  looked  down  on  it,  some  cran- 
ing their  necks  curiously,  others  giving  a 
careless  glance,  and  some  without  any  in- 
terest at  all,  as  they  would  have  looked  at 
a  house  by  the  roadside  or  a  passing  cart 
or  a  hole  in  the  road. 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

One  young  soldier  caught  his  foot  in  a 
trailing  vine,  and  fell  just  opposite  to  it. 
He  grew  very  red  when  his  comrades  gig- 
gled at  him  for  his  awkwardness.  The 
crowd  of  sleepy  spectators  fell  in  on  either 
side  of  the  band.  They  had  forgotten  it, 
too,  and  the  priests  put  their  vestments 
back  in  the  bag  and  wrapped  their  heavy 
cloaks  about  them,  and  hurried  off  after  the 
others. 

Every  one  seemed  to  have  forgotten  it 
except  two  men,  who  came  slowly  towards 
it  from  the  town,  driving  a  bullock  -  cart 
that  bore  an  unplaned  coffin,  each  with  a 
cigarette  between  his  lips,  and  with  his 
throat  wrapped  in  a  shawl  to  keep  out  the 
morning  mists. 

At  that  moment  the  sun,  which  had 
shown  some  promise  of  its  coming  in  the 
glow  above  the  hills,  shot  up  suddenly 
from  behind  them  in  all  the  splendor  of 
the  tropics,  a  fierce,  red  disk  of  heat,  and 
filled  the  air  with  warmth  and  light. 

The  bayonets  of  the  retreating  column 

112 


CUBA   IN    WAR-TIME 

flashed  in  it,  and  at  the  sight  of  it  a  rooster 
in  a  farm-yard  near  by  crowed  vigorously, 
and  a  dozen  bugles  answered  the  challenge 
with  the  brisk,  cheery  notes  of  the  reveille, 
and  from  all  parts  of  the  city  the  church 
bells  jangled  out  the  call  for  early  mass, 
and  the  whole  world  of  Santa  Clara  seemed 
to  stir  and  stretch  itself  and  to  wake  to 
welcome  the  day  just  begun. 

But  as  I  fell  in  at  the  rear  of  the  proces- 
sion and  looked  back,  the  figure  of  the 
young  Cuban,  who  was  no  longer  a  part  of 
the  world  of  Santa  Clara,  was  asleep  in  the 
wet  grass,  with  his  motionless  arms  still 
tightly  bound  behind  him,  with  the  scap- 
ular twisted  awry  across  his  face,  and  the 
blood  from  his  breast  sinking  into  the  soil 
he  had  tried  to  free. 


II.-ALONG  THE  TROCHA 

The  Trocha  at  the  eastern  end  of  Cuba 
is  the  longer  of  the  two,  and  stretches 
from  coast  to  coast  at  the  narrowest  part 

H  113 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

of  that  half  of  the  island,  from  Jucaro  on 
the  south  to  Moron  on  the  north. 

Before  I  came  to  Cuba  this  time  I  had 
read  in  our  newspapers  about  the  Spanish 
trochas  without  knowing  just  what  a  tro- 
cha  was.  I  imagined  it  to  be  a  rampart  of 
earth  and  fallen  trees,  topped  with  barbed 
wire — a  Rubicon  that  no  one  was  allowed 
to  pass,  but  which  the  insurgents  appar- 
ently crossed  at  will  with  the  ease  of  little 
girls  leaping  over  a  flying  skipping-rope. 
In  reality  it  seems  to  be  a  much  more  im- 
portant piece  of  engineering  than  is  gener- 
ally supposed,  and  one  which,  when  com- 
pleted, may  prove  an  absolute  barrier  to 
the  progress  of  large  bodies  of  troops  un- 
less they  are  supplied  with  artillery. 

I  saw  twenty-five  of  its  fifty  miles,  and 

the  engineers  in  charge  told  me  that  I  was 

the    first    American,   or  foreigner  of  any 

nationality,  who  had  been  allowed  to  visit 

it  and  make  drawings  and  photographs  of 

it.     Why  they  allowed  me  to  see  it  I  do 

not  know,  nor  can  I  imagine  either  why 
114 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

they  should  have  objected  to  my  doing  so. 
There  is  no  great  mystery  about  it. 

Indeed,  what  impressed  me  most  con- 
cerning it  was  the  fact  that  every  bit  of 
material  used  in  constructing  this  back- 
bone of  the  Spanish  defence,  this  strategic 
point  of  all  their  operations,  and  their  chief 
hope  of  success  against  the  revolutionists, 
was  furnished  by  their  despised  and  hated 
enemies  in  the  United  States.  Every 
sheet  of  armor  plate,  every  corrugated  zinc 
roof,  every  roll  of  barbed  wire,  every  plank, 
beam,  rafter,  and  girder,  even  the  nails  that 
hold  the  planks  together,  the  forts  them- 
selves, shipped  in  sections,  which  are  num- 
bered in  readiness  for  setting  up,  the  ties 
for  the  military  railroad  which  clings  to 
the  trocha  from  one  sea  to  the  other — all 
of  these  have  been  supplied  by  manufact- 
urers in  the  United  States. 

This  is  interesting  when  one  remembers 
that  the  American  in  the  Spanish  illustrated 
papers  is  represented  as  a  hog,  and  general- 
ly with  the  United  States  flag  for  trousers, 
115 


CUBA    IN    WAR-TIME 

and  Spain  as  a  noble  and  valiant  lion. 
Yet  it  would  appear  that  the  lion  is  willing 
to  save  a  few  dollars  on  freight  by  buying 
his  armament  from  his  hoggish  neighbor, 
and  that  the  American  who  cheers  for 
Cuba  Libre  is  not  at  all  averse  to  making: 
as  many  dollars  as  he  can  in  building  the 
wall  against  which  the  Cubans  may  be 
eventually  driven  and  shot. 

A  thick  jungle  stretches  for  miles  on 
either  side  of  the  trocha,  and  the  only  way 
of  reaching  it  from  the  outer  world  is 
through  the  seaports  at  either  end.  Of 
these,  Moron  is  all  but  landlocked,  and 
Jucaro  is  guarded  by  a  chain  of  keys, 
which  make  it  necessary  to  reship  all  the 
troops  and  their  supplies  and  all  the  ma- 
terial for  the  trocha  to  lighters,  which  meet 
the  vessels  six  miles  out  at  sea. 

A  dirty  Spanish  steamer  drifted  with  us 
for  two  nights  and  a  day  from  Cienfuegos 
to  Jucaro,  and  three  hundred  Spanish,  sol- 
diers, dusty,  ragged  and  barefooted,  own- 
ed her  as  completely  as  though  she  had 

116 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

been  a  regular  transport.  They  sprawled 
at  full  length  over  every  deck,  their  guns 
were  stacked  in  each  corner,  and  their 
hammocks  swung  four  deep  from  railings 
and  riggings  and  across  companion-ways, 
and  even  from  the  bridge  itself.  It  was 
not  possible  to  take  a  step  without  tread- 
ing on  one  of  them,  and  their  hammocks 
made  a  walk  on  the  deck  something  like  a 
hurdle-race. 

With  the  soldiers,  and  crowding  them 
for  space,  were  the  officers'  mules  and 
ponies,  steers,  calves,  and  squealing  pigs, 
while  crates  full  of  chickens  were  piled  on 
top  of  one  another  as  high  as  the  hurricane 
deck,  so  that  the  roosters  and  the  buglers 
vied  with  each  other  in  continual  contests. 
It  was  like  travelling  with  a  floating  men- 
agerie. Twice  a  day  the  bugles  sounded 
the  call  for  breakfast  and  dinner,  and  the 
soldiers  ceased  to  sprawl,  and  squatted  on 
the  deck  around  square  tin  cans  filled  with 
soup  or  red  wine,  from  which  they  fed 
themselves  with  spoons  and  into  which 
117 


CUBA    IN    WAR-TIME 

they  dipped  their  rations  of  hard-tack,  after 
first  breaking  them  on  the  deck  with  a  blow 
from  a  bayonet  or  crushing  them  with  a 
rifle  butt. 

The  steward  brought  what  was  supposed 
to  be  a  sample  of  this  soup  to  the  officer 
seated  in  the  pilot-house  high  above  the 
squalor,  and  he  would  pick  out  a  bean 
from  the  mess  on  the  end  of  a  fork  and 
place  it  to  his  lips  and  nod  his  head  grave- 
ly, and  the  grinning  steward  would  carry 
the  dish  away. 

But  the  soldiers  seemed  to  enjoy  it  very 
much,  and  to  be  content— even  cheerful. 
There  are  many  things  to  admire  about 
the  Spanish  Tommy.  In  the  seven  for- 
tified cities  which  I  visited,  where  there 
were  thousands  of  him,  I  never  saw  one 
drunk  or  aggressive,  which  is  much  more 
than  can  be  said  of  his  officers.  On  the 
march  he  is  patient,  eager,  and  alert.  He 
trudges  from  fifteen  to  thirty  miles  a  day 
over  the  worst  roads  ever  constructed  by 
man,  in  canvas  shoes  with  rope  soles,  carry- 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

ing  one  hundred  and  fifty  cartridges,  fifty 
across  his  stomach  and  one  hundred  on 
his  back,  weighing  in  all  fifty  pounds. 

With  these  he  has  his  Mauser,  his 
blanket,  and  an  extra  pair  of  shoes,  and  as 
many  tin  plates  and  bottles  and  bananas 
and  potatoes  and  loaves  of  white  bread  as 
he  can  stow  away  in  his  blouse  and  knap- 
sack. And  this  under  a  sun  which  makes 
even  a  walking-stick  seem  a  burden.  In 
spite  of  his  officers,  and  not  on  account  of 
them,  he  maintains  good  discipline,  and  no 
matter  how  tired  he  may  be  or  how  much 
he  may  wish  to  rest  on  his  plank  bed,  he 
will  always  struggle  to  his  feet  when  the 
officers  pass  and  stand  at  salute.  He  gets 
very  little  in  return  for  his  efforts. 

One  Sunday  night,  when  the  band  was 

playing  in  the  plaza,  at  a  heaven-forsaken 

fever  camp  called  Ciego  de  Avila,  a  group 

of  soldiers  were  sitting   near  me  on   the 

grass  enjoying  the  music.     They  loitered 

there  a  few  minutes   after  the  bugle  had 

sounded  the  retreat  to  the  barracks,  and 
119 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

the  officer  of  the  day  found  them.  When 
they  stood  up  he  ordered  them  to  report 
themselves  at  the  cartel  under  arrest,  and 
then,  losing  all  control  of  himself,  lashed 
one  little  fellow  over  the  head  with  his 
colonel's  staff,  while  the  boy  stood  with 
his  eyes  shut  and  with  his  lips  pressed 
together,  but  holding  his  hand  at  salute 
until  the  officer's  stick  beat  it  down. 

These  soldiers  are  from  the  villages  and 
towns  of  Spain ;  some  of  them  are  not 
more  than  seventeen  years  old,  and  they 
are  not  volunteers.  They  do  not  care 
whether  Spain  owns  an  island  eighty  miles 
from  the  United  States  or  loses  it,  but 
they  go  out  to  it  and  have  their  pay  stolen, 
and  are  put  to  building  earth  forts  and 
stone  walls,  and  die  of  fever.  It  seems  a 
poor  return  for  their  unconscious  patriot- 
ism when  a  colonel  thrashes  one  of  them 
as  though  he  were  a  dog,  and  an  especial- 
ly brave  act,  as  he  knows  the  soldier  may 
not  strike  back. 

The  second  night  out  the  ship  steward 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

showed  us  a  light  lying  low  in  the  water, 
and  told  us  that  was  Jucaro,  and  we  ac- 
cepted his  statement  and  went  over  the 
side  into  an  open  boat,  in  which  we  drift- 
ed about  until  morning,  while  the  colored 
man  who  owned  the  boat  and  a  little  mu- 
latto boy  who  steered  it  quarrelled  as  to 
where  exactly  the  town  of  Jucaro  might 
be.  They  brought  us  up  at  last  against  a 
dark  shadow  of  a  house,  built  on  wooden 
posts,  and  apparently  floating  in  the  water. 
This  was  the  town  of  Jucaro  as  seen  at 
that  hour  of  the  night,  and  as  we  left  it  be- 
fore sunrise  the  next  morning,  I  did  not 
know  until  my  return  whether  I  had  slept 
in  a  stationary  ark  or  on  the  end  of  a  wharf. 

We  found  four  other  men  sleeping  on 
the  floor  in  the  room  assigned  us,  and  out- 
side, eating  by  a  smoking  candle,  a  young 
English  boy,  who  looked  up  and  laughed 
when  he  heard  us  speak,  and  said : 

"  You've  come  at  last,  have  you  ?  You 
are  the  first  white  men  I've  seen  since  I 
came  here.     That's  twelve  months  ago." 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

He  was  the  cable  operator  at  Jucaro, 
and  he  sits  all  day  in  front  of  a  sheet  of 
white  paper  and  watches  a  ray  of  light 
play  across  an  imaginary  line,  and  he  can 
tell  by  its  quivering,  so  he  says,  all  that  is 
going  on  all  over  the  world.  Outside  of 
his  whitewashed  cable -office  is  the  land- 
locked bay,  filled  with  wooden  piles  to 
keep  out  the  sharks,  and  back  of  him  lies 
the  village  of  Jucaro,  consisting  of  two 
open  places  filled  with  green  slime  and 
filth  and  thirty  huts.  But  the  operator 
said  that  what  with  fishing  and  bathing 
and  Tit -Bits  and  Lloyd's  Weekly  Times 
Jucaro  was  quite  enjoyable.  He  is  going 
home  the  year  after  this. 

"At  least,  that's  how  I  put  it,"  he  ex- 
plained. "My  contract  requires  me  to  stop 
on  here  until  December  of  1898,  but  it 
doesn't  sound  so  long  if  you  say  '  a  year 
after  this,'  does  it?"  He  had  had  the 
yellow -fever  and  had  never,  owing  to 
the  war,  been  outside  of  Jucaro.  "  Still," 
he    added,  "  I'm    seeing    the    world,   and 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

I've  always  wanted  to  visit  foreign 
parts." 

As  one  of  the  few  clean  persons  I  met 
in  Cuba,  and  the  only  contented  one,  I 
hope  the  cable  operator  at  Jucaro  will  get 
a  rise  in  salary  soon,  and  some  day  see 
more  of  foreign  parts  than  he  is  seeing  at 
present,  and  at  last  get  back  to  "  the  Horse- 
shoe, at  the  corner  of  Tottenham  Court 
Road  and  Oxford  Street,  sir,"  where,  as  we 
agreed,  better  entertainment  is  to  be  had  on 
Saturday  night  than  anywhere  in  London. 

In  Havana,  General  Weyler  had  given 
me  a  pass  to  enter  fortified  places,  which, 
except  for  the  authority  which  the  signa- 
ture implied,  meant  nothing,  as  all  the 
cities  and  towns  in  Cuba  are  fortified,  and 
any  one  can  visit  them.  It  was  as  though 
Mayor  Strong  had  given  a  man  a  permit 
to  ride  in  all  the  cable  cars  attached  to 
cables. 

It  was  not  intended  to  include  the  trocha, 
but  I  argued  that  if  a  trocha  was  not  a 
"  fortified  place  "  nothing  else  was ;  and  I 

123 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

persuaded  the  commandante  at  Jucaro  to 
take  that  view  of  it  and  to  vise  Weyler's 
order.  So  at  five  the  following  morning 
a  box  -  car,  with  wooden  planks  stretched 
across  it  for  seats,  carried  me  along  the 
line  of  the  trocha  from  Jucaro  to  Ciego, 
the  chief  military  port  on  the  fortifications, 
and  consumed  five  hot  and  stifling  hours 
in  covering  twenty-five  miles. 

The  trocha  is  a  cleared  space  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  to  two  hundred  yards  wide, 
which  stretches  for  fifty  miles  through  what 
is  apparently  an  impassable  jungle.  The 
trees  which  have  been  cut  down  in  clear- 
ing this  passageway  have  been  piled  up  at 
either  side  of  the  cleared  space  and  laid 
in  parallel  rows,  forming  a  barrier  of  tree- 
trunks  and  roots  and  branches  as  wide  as 
Broadway  and  higher  than  a  man's  head. 
It  would  take  a  man  some  time  to  pick  his 
way  over  these  barriers,  and  a  horse  could 
no  more  do  it  than  it  could  cross  a  jam  of 
floating  logs  in  a  river. 

Between  the  fallen  trees  lies  the  single 
124 


CUBA    IN    WAR-TIME 

track  of  the  military  railroad,  and  on  one 
side  of  that  is  the  line  of  forts,  and  a  few 
feet  beyond  them  a  maze  of  barbed  wire. 
Beyond  the  barbed  wire  again  is  the  other 
barrier  of  fallen  trees  and  the  jungle.  In 
its  unfinished  state  this  is  not  an  insur- 
mountable barricade.  Gomez  crossed  it 
last  November  by  daylight  with  six  hun- 
dred men,  and  with  but  the  loss  of  twenty- 
seven  killed  and  as  many  wounded.  To- 
day it  would  be  more  difficult,  and  in  a  few 
months,  without  the  aid  of  artillery,  it  will 
be  impossible,  except  with  the  sacrifice  of 
a  great  loss  of  life.  The  forts  are  of  three 
kinds.  They  are  best  described  as  the 
forts,  the  block-houses,  and  the  little  forts. 
A  big  fort  consists  of  two  stories,  with  a 
cellar  below  and  a  watch-tower  above.  It 
is  made  of  stone  and  adobe,  and  is  painted 
a  glaring  white.  One  of  these  is  placed  at 
intervals' of  every  half-mile  along  the  trocha, 
and  on  a  clear  day  the  sentry  in  the  watch- 
tower  of  each  can  see  three  forts  on  either 
side. 

125 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

Midway  between  the  big  forts,  at  a  dis- 
tance of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  each,  is  a 
block-house  of  two  stories,  with  the  upper 
story  of  wood  overhanging  the  lower  foun- 
dation of  mud.  These  are  placed  at  right 
angles  to  the  railroad,  instead  of  facing  it, 
as  do  the  forts. 

Between  each  block-house  and  each  fort 
are  three  little  forts  of  mud  and  planks, 
surrounded  by  a  ditch.  They  look  some- 
thing like  a  farmer's  ice-house  as  we  see  it 
at  home,  and  they  are  about  as  hot  inside 
as  the  other  is  cold.  They  hold  five  men, 
and  are  within  hailing  distance  of  one 
another.  Back  of  them  are  three  rows 
of  stout  wooden  stakes,  with  barbed  wire 
stretching  from  one  row  to  the  other,  in- 
terlacing and  crossing  and  running  in  and 
out  above  and  below  like  an  intricate  cat's- 
cradle  of  wire. 

One  can  judge  how  closely  knit  it  is  by 

the  fact  that  to  every  twelve  yards  of  posts 

there  are  four  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of 

wire  fencing.     The   forts  are  most  com- 
126 


CUBA    IN    WAR-TIME 

pletely  equipped  in  their  way,  but  twelve 
men  in  the  jungle  would  find  it  quite  easy 
to  keep  twelve  men  securely  imprisoned 
in  one  of  them  for  an  indefinite  length  of 
time. 

The  walls  are  about  twelve  feet  high, 
with  a  cellar  below  and  a  vault  above  the 
cellar.  The  roof  of  the  vault  forms  a  plat- 
form, around  which  the  four  walls  rise  to 
the  height  of  a  man's  shoulder.  There  are 
loopholes  for  rifles  in  the  sides  of  the  vault 
and  where  the  platform  joins  the  walls. 
These  latter  allow  the  men  in  the  fort  to 
fire  down  almost  directly  upon  the  head  of 
any  one  who  comes  up  close  to  the  wall  of 
the  fort,  where  without  these  holes  in  the 
floor  it  would  be  impossible  to  fire  on  him 
except  by  leaning  far  over  the  rampart. 

Above  the  platform  is  an  iron  or  zinc 
roof,  supported  by  iron  pillars,  and  in  the 
centre  of  this  is  the  watch-tower.  The  only 
approach  to  the  fort  is  by  a  movable  ladder, 
which  hangs  over  the  side  like  the  gang- 
way of  a  ship -of -war,  and  can  be  raised 
127 


CUBA   IN  WAR-TIME 

by  those  on  the  inside  by  means  of  a  rope 
suspended  over  a  wheel  in  the  roof.  The 
opening  in  the  wall  at  the  head  of  the  lad- 
der is  closed  at  the  time  of  an  attack  by  an 
iron  platform,  to  which  the  ladder  leads, 
and  which  also  can  be  raised  by  a  pulley. 
In  October  of  1897  the  Spanish  hope  to 
have  calcium  lights  placed  in  the  watch- 
towers  of  the  forts  with  sufficient  power 
to  throw  a  search-light  over  a  quarter  of 
a  mile,  or  to  the  next  block-house,  and  so 
keep  the  trocha  as  well  lighted  as  Broad- 
way from  one  end  to  the  other. 

As  a  further  protection  against  the  in- 
surgents, the  Spaniards  have  distributed  a 
number  of  bombs  along  the  trocha,  which 
they  showed  with  great  pride.  These  are 
placed  at  those  points  along  the  trocha 
where  the  jungle  is  less  thickly  grown,  and 
where  the  insurgents  might  be  expected  to 
pass. 

Each  bomb  is  fitted  with  an  explosive 
cap,  to  which  five  or  six  wires  are  attached 

and  staked  down  on  the  ground.    Any  one 

128 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

stumbling  over  one  of  these  wires  explodes 
the  bomb  and  throws  a  charge  of  broken 
iron  to  a  distance  of  fifty  feet.  How  the 
Spaniards  are  going  to  prevent  stray  cattle 
and  their  own  soldiers  from  wandering  into 
these  man-traps  it  is  difficult  to  understand. 
The  chief  engineer  in  charge  of  the 
trocha  detailed  a  captain  to  take  me  over 
it  and  to  show  me  all  that  there  was  to  see. 
The  officers  of  the  infantry  and  cavalry 
stationed  at  Ciego  objected  to  his  doing 
this,  but  he  said :  "  He  has  a  pass  from 
General  Weyler.  I  am  not  responsible." 
It  was  true  that  I  had  an  order  from  Gen- 
eral Weyler,  but  he  had  rendered  it  in- 
effective by  having  me  followed  about 
wherever  I  went  by  his  police  and  spies. 
They  sat  next  to  me  in  the  cafes  and  in 
the  plazas,  and  when  I  took  a  cab  they 
called  the  next  one  on  the  line  and  trailed 
after  mine  all  around  the  city,  until  my 
driver  would  become  alarmed  for  fear  he, 
too,  was  suspected  of  something,  and  would 

take  me  back  to  the  hotel, 
i  129 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

I  had  gotten  rid  of  them  at  Cienfuegos 
by  purchasing  a  ticket  on  the  steamer  to 
Santiago,  three  days  farther  down  the  coast, 
and  then  dropping  off  in  the  night  at  the 
trocha ;  so  while  I  was  visiting  it  I  expected 
to  find  that  my  non-arrival  at  Santiago  had 
been  reported,  and  word  sent  to  the  trocha 
that  I  was  a  newspaper  correspondent.  And 
whenever  an  officer  spoke  to  the  one  who 
was  showing  me  about,  my  camera  ap- 
peared to  grow  to  the  size  of  a  trunk  and 
to  weigh  like  lead,  and  I  felt  lonely,  and 
longed  for  the  company  of  the  cheerful  ca- 
ble operator  at  the  other  end  of  the  trocha. 

Ciegowas  an  interesting  town.  During 
every  day  of  the  last  rainy  season  an  aver- 
age of  thirty  soldiers  and  officers  died  there 
of  yellow-fever.  While  I  was  there  I  saw 
two  soldiers,  one  quite  an  old  man,  drop 
down  in  the  street  as  though  they  had  been 
shot,  and  lie  in  the  road  until  they  were 
carried  to  the  yellow-fever  ward  of  the  hos- 
pital under  the  black  oilskin  cloth  of  the 

stretchers. 

130 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

There  was  a  very  smart  officers'  club  at 
Ciego,  well  supplied  with  a  bar  and  billiard- 
tables,  which  I  made  some  excuse  for  not 
entering,  but  which  could  be  seen  through 
its  open  doors ;  and  I  suggested  to  one  of 
the  members  that  it  must  be  a  comfort  to 
have  such  a  place,  where  the  officers  might 
go  after  their  day's  march  on  the  mud 
banks  of  the  trocha,  and  where  they  could 
bathe  and  be  cool  and  clean.  He  said 
there  were  no  baths  in  the  club  nor  any- 
where in  the  town.  He  added  that  he 
thought  it  might  be  a  good  idea  to  have 
them. 

The  bath  -  tub  is  the  dividing  line  be- 
tween savages  and  civilized  beings.  And 
when  I  learned  that  regiment  after  regi- 
ment of  Spanish  officers  and  gentlemen 
have  been  stationed  in  that  town — and  it 
was  the  dirtiest,  hottest,  and  dustiest  town 
I  ever  visited — for  eighteen  months,  and 
none  of  them  had  wanted  a  bath,  I  be- 
lieved from  that  moment  all  the  stories  I 
had  heard  about  their  butcheries  and  atroc- 
131 


CUBA    IN   WAR-TIME 

ities — stories  which  I  had  verified  later  by 
more  direct  evidence. 

From  a  military  point  of  view  the  trocha 
impressed  me  as  a  weapon  which  could  be 
made  to  cut  both  ways. 

If  it  were  situated  on  a  broad  plain  or 
prairie,  with  a  mile  of  clear  ground  on 
either  side  of  it  where  troops  could  ma- 
noeuvre, and  which  would  prevent  the  en- 
emy from  stealing  up  to  it  unseen,  it  might 
be  a  useful  line  of  defence.  But  at  present, 
along  its  entire  length  stretches  this  almost 
impassable  barrier  of  jungle.  If  troops 
were  sent  at  short  notice  from  the  military 
camps  along  the  line  to  protect  any  partic- 
ular point,  one  can  imagine  what  their  con- 
dition would  be  were  they  forced  to  ma- 
noeuvre in  a  space  one  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  broad,  the  half  of  which  is  taken  up 
with  barbed  wire  fences,  fallen  trees,  and 
explosive  bomb-shells.  Only  two  hundred 
at  the  most  could  find  shelter  in  the  forts, 
which  would  mean  that  many  more  would 

be  left  outside  the  breastworks  and  scat- 
132 


CUBA    IN  WAR-TIME 

tered  over  a  distance  of  a  half-mile,  with  a 
forest  on  both  sides  of  them  from  which 
the  enemy  could  fire  volley  after  volley  into 
their  ranks,  protected  from  pursuit  not  only 
by  the  jungle  but  by  the  walls  of  fallen 
trees  which  the  Spaniards  themselves  have 
placed  there. 

A  trocha  in  an  open  plain,  as  were  the 
English  trochas  in  the  desert  around  Sua- 
kin,  makes  an  admirable  defence  when  a 
few  men  are  forced  to  withstand  the  assault 
of  a  great  many ;  but  fighting  behind  a 
trocha  in  a  jungle  is  like  fighting  in  an 
ambush,  and  if  the  trocha  at  Moron  is 
ever  attacked  in  force  it  may  prove  to  be 
a  Valley  of  Death  to  the  Spanish  troops. 


THE   INAUGURATION 


THE   INAUGURATION 


WHEN  the  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States  is  sworn  into  office 
he  takes  the  oath  in  the  same  Senate-Cham- 
ber where,  later,  he  is  to  preside  over  a 
limited,  and,  in  one  sense,  a  select  body  of 
men.  But  as  the  President  of  the  United 
States  presides  over  the  entire  nation,  he 
takes  his  oath  of  office  in  the  presence  of 
as  many  of  the  American  people  as  can 
see  him,  and  he  is  not  shut  in  by  the  close 
walls  of  a  room,  but  stands  in  the  open 
air,  under  the  open  sky,  with  the  marble 
heights  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
and  of  the  Senate  for  his  background,  and 
with  the  great  dome  of  the  Capitol  for  his 
sounding-board. 

The  two  ceremonies  differ  greatly.    One 
137 


THE   INAUGURATION 

suggests  the  director  of  a  railroad  address- 
ing the  stockholders  at  their  annual  meet- 
ing, while  the  other  is  as  impressive  in  its 
simplicity  as  Moses  talking  to  the  chosen 
people  from  the  mountain-side. 

The  Chamber  of  the  Senate  is  a  great 
oblong  room,  with  a  heavy  gallery  running 
back  frum  an  unbroken  front  to  each  of 
the  four  walls,  and  rising  almost  to  the 
ceiling.  There  is  a  carpet  on  the  floor, 
and  rows  of  school-desks  placed  in  curved 
lines,  facing  a  platform  and  three  short 
rows  of  chairs.  The  first  row,  where  the 
official  stenographers  sit,  is  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  -  Chamber ;  the  second,  for  the 
clerks,  is  raised  above  it ;  and  higher  still, 
behind  the  clerks,  is  the  massive  desk  of 
the  Vice-President,  or  the  President  of  the 
Senate,  as  he  is  called  when  he  presides 
over  that  body.  Opposite  to  the  desk  of 
the  Vice-President,  and  at  each  side  of  it, 
are  wide  entrances  with  swinging  doors. 
The  Chamber  is  lighted  from  above,  and 

is  decorated  in  quiet  colors. 

138 


THE   INAUGURATION 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  March 
last  the  galleries  were  massed  with  people, 
and  the  Senators,  instead  of  sitting  each  at 
his  own  desk,  crowded  together  to  see  the 
Vice-President  inaugurated,  while  several 
hundreds  of  yellow  chairs  were  squeezed 
in  among  the  school -desks  for  the  use  of 
the  members  of  the  House.  In  front  of 
the  clerk's  desk  were  two  leather  chairs, 
for  the  new  President  and  the  old  Presi- 
dent, and  the  seats  for  the  foreign  ambas- 
sadors. 

It  had  been  an  all-night  session,  and  the 
Senators  had  remained  in  the  Chamber  un- 
til near  sunrise,  and  looked  rumpled  and 
weary  in  consequence.  Among  them  were 
several  men  whose  term  of  office  would  ex- 
pire when  the  clock  over  the  door  told  mid- 
day ;  they  had  been  six  years  or  less  in  that 
room,  and  in  three-quarters  of  an  hour  they 
would  leave  it  perhaps  for  the  last  time. 
The  men  who  had  taken  their  seats  from 
them,  and  who  were  to  be  sworn  in  by  the 
new  Vice-President,  sat  squeezed  in  beside 
139 


THE   INAUGURATION 

them,  looking  conscious  and  uncomfortable, 
like  new  boys  on  their  first  day  at  school. 
Caricaturists  and  the  artists  of  the  daily 
papers  had  made  the  faces  of  many  of 
them  familiar,  and  while  the  people  waited 
for  the  chief  actors  to  appear,  they  pointed 
out  the  more  conspicuous  Senators  to  each 
other,  looking  down  upon  them  with  the 
same  interest  that  visitors  to  the  Zoo  be- 
stow on  the  bears. 

In  the  front  of  the  gallery  reserved  for 
the  diplomatic  corps  sat  the  wife  of  the 
Chinese  minister.  She  was  the  only  bit 
of  color  in  the  room  that  was  not  Ameri- 
can or  imported  from  Paris.  She  was  a 
little  person  in  blue  satin,  with  a  great 
head-dress  of  red,  and  her  face  was  painted 
like  the  face  of  a  picture,  according  to  the 
custom  of  her  country. 

Back  of  her,  accompanied  by  her  secre- 
tary, was  the  exiled  Queen  of  Hawaii,  a 
handsome,  dark-skinned  negress,  quietly 
but   richly  dressed,  and   carrying    herself 

with  great  dignity.     In  front  of  her  was 

140 


THE   INAUGURATION 

a  young  English  peer,  a  secretary  of  the 
British  Embassy,  who  took  photographs 
of  the  scene  below  him  with  a  hand-cam- 
era, knowing  perfectly  well  that  had  he 
been  guilty  of  such  a  piece  of  impertinence 
in  his  own  Lower  House  he  would  have 
been  taken  out  of  the  gallery  by  the  collar 
and  thrown  into  the  lobby. 

The  expectant  quiet  of  the  hour  was 
first  broken  by  a  young  man  with  his  hair 
banged  over  his  forehead  and  a  fluffy  satin 
tie  that  drooped  upon  his  breast.  He 
gazed  meekly  about  him  out  of  round 
spectacles  and  announced  in  a  high,  shrill 
voice : 

"  The  ambassadors  from  foreign  coun- 
tries." 

In   the   courts   of   Europe,  where   they 

take  state  ceremonies  more  seriously  than 

we  do,  there  is  a  functionary  who  is  known 

as  the  "  Announcer  of  Ambassadors,"  or 

the   "Introducer  of   Ambassadors"  —  his 

title  explains  his  duties.     The  American 

introducer  of  ambassadors  was  a  subordi- 
141 


THE   INAUGURATION 

nate  official,  and  although  we  are  a  free 
people  and  love  simplicity  and  hate  show, 
it  did  seem  as  though,  for  that  occasion 
only,  some  one  with  a  little  more  manner, 
or  a  little  less  ease  of  manner,  might  have 
been  chosen  to  announce  the  various  disf- 
nitaries  as  they  entered  the  Chamber.  A 
thin  young  man  in  a  short  sack-coat  run- 
ning excitedly  up  and  down  the  aisle  lead- 
ing to  the  President's  desk  did  not  exact- 
ly seem  to  rise  to  the  requirements  of 
the  occasion ;  especially  was  this  the  case 
when  he  put  his  hand  on  the  breast  of 
the  first  of  the  ambassadors  and  shoved 
him  back  until  he  was  ready  to  announce 
him. 

The  foreign  ambassadors  were  four  in 
number,  and  very  beautiful  in  their  diplo- 
matic uniforms  and  sashes  of  the  royal  or- 
ders. They  seated  themselves,  with  obvi- 
ous content,  in  places  on  a  line  with  those 
reserved  for  the  President  and  President- 
elect. 

The  young  man  skipped  gayly  back  up 

142 


THE    INAUGURATION 

the  aisle  and  announced,  "  The  members  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States," 
and  the  Chief  Justice  and  his  fellow-judges 
came  rustling  forward  in  black  silk  robes 
and  s-eated  themselves  facing  the  ambassa- 
dors, and  then  all  of  them  with  one  accord 
crossed  their  legs. 

The  "ministers  from  foreign  lands"  came 
next  in  a  glittering  line,  and  crowded  into 
the  second  row  of  school-desks,  shunting 
and  shifting  themselves  about  several  times, 
like  cars  in  a  freight-yard  when  a  train  is 
being  made  up,  until  each  was  in  his  right 
place  and  no  one's  dignity  was  jeoparded. 
Then  came  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  who  ascended  the  steps 
leading  to  the  desk  and  took  his  place  next 
to  the  chairs  reserved  for  the  incoming 
Vice  -  President  and  the  outgoing  Vice- 
President,  and  looked  down  at  the  empty 
red  chair  below  him,  on  which,  had  the 
pleasure  of  many  people  been  consulted, 
he  would  have  sat  that  day. 

The  other  members  of  the  House  poured 
143 


THE   INAUGURATION 

into  the  room  without  order  or  precedence, 
and  spread  themselves  over  the  floor,  pick- 
ing up  the  yellow  chairs  and  carrying  them 
nearer  to  the  front,  or  shoving  them  out  of 
their  way  and  piling  them  up  one  on  top  of 
the  other  in  the  corners.  There  were  very 
young  men  among  them,  and  many  old  and 
well-known  men,  and  they  had  smuggled  in 
with  them  Governors  of  States,  with  a  few 
of  their  aides  in  uniform,  and  a  number  of 
lobbyists,  and  politicians  out  of  office,  but 
with  much  more  power  than  those  to  whom 
they  had  given  it.  Then  quietly  from  a 
side  door  behind  the  President's  desk  came 
Major-General  Nelson  A.  Miles,  commander 
of  the  United  States  army,  and  the  naval 
officer  who  ranked  him,  and  their  adju- 
tants ;  and  opposite  to  them,  from  the  oth- 
er door,  appeared  the  next  ambassador  to 
France,  who,  as  the  marshal  of  the  great 
parade  which  was  to  follow,  and  on  account 
of  his  promised  new  dignity,  was  one  of  the 
celebrities  of  the  hour.  The  three  aides 
of  General  Porter  were  the  sons  of  former 
144 


THE    INAUGURATION 

Presidents.  The  youngest  of  them  was 
young  Garfield,  a  modest,  manly,  good- 
looking  boy  in  the  uniform  of  a  cavalry 
officer. 

In  the  gallery  to  the  left  of  the  Presi- 
dent's desk  were  three  empty  rows  of 
benches,  which,  as  every  one  knew  by  this 
time,  were  reserved  for  the  family  of  the 
incoming  President,  and  the  first  real  in- 
terest of  the  morning  arrived  when  the 
doors  above  this  gallery  were  held  open, 
and  the  ladies  who  were  to  occupy  these 
places,  and  later,  so  large  a  place  in  the 
interest  of  the  country,  appeared  at  the  top 
of  the  steps.  Portraits  and  photographs 
rendered  it  easy  to  recognize  them,  and 
though  the  spectators  gave  no  sign  of  wel- 
come to  these  unofficial  members  of  the 
President's  household,  they  held  every  eye 
in  the  place.  The  mother  of  the  incoming 
President  came  down  the  steps  briskly,  as 
eager  and  smiling  and  young  as  her  son 
in  spite  of  her  white  hair  and  gold  spec- 
tacles. The  people  smiled  back  at  her  in 
K  145 


THE   INAUGURATION 

sympathy  with  her  pleasure  at  his  triumph, 
and  the  scene  at  once  took  on  a  human 
interest  it  had  not  held  before.  For  while 
it  is  possible  at  any  time  to  look  at  ambas- 
sadors in  diamond  stars  and  brave  soldiers 
in  gold  lace,  it  is  not  possible  every  day  to 
see  a  mother  as  she  watches  her  son  at  the 
moment  when  he  takes  the  oath  that  makes 
him  the  executive  head  of  seventy  millions 
of  people. 

The  wife  of  the  new  President  followed 
his  mother  slowly.  She  had  been  ill,  and 
as  she  came  down  the  steps  she  was  partly 
supported  on  each  side  by  one  of  her  hus- 
band's friends.  Her  face  was  very  pale, 
but  quite  beautiful  and  young-looking,  like 
that  of  a  girl,  and  the  blue  velvet  that  she 
wore  softened  and  enriched  the  noble  lines 
which  pain  and  great  suffering  had  cut  on 
her  face. 

The  young  man  with  the  butterfly  tie 

and  the  short  coat  dashed  up  and  down  the 

middle  aisle  now  with  hysterical  vigor,  and 

announced  over  his  shoulder  during  one 

146 


THE   INAUGURATION 

of  his  flights  that  the  "  Vice-President  and 
the  Vice-President-elect"  were  approach- 
ing. Mr.  Stevenson  came  in,  with  Mr. 
Hobart  following  him,  and  the  two  men 
ascended  the  steps  of  the  platform  and 
bowed  to  Speaker  Reed,  who  rose  to  greet 
them. 

There  were  now  only  the  two  chief 
actors  to  come,  and  the  crowded  room 
waited  with  its  interest  at  the  highest 
pitch.  The  members  of  Congress  who 
had  crowded  in  around  the  doorways  were 
pushed  back  on  each  other,  and  those  who 
had  slipped  down  the  aisles  slid  in  be- 
tween the  desks,  as  the  young  man  an- 
nounced "  The  President  and  President- 
elect." 

As  Mr.  Cleveland  and  Major  McKinley 
entered,  walking  close  together,  the  people 
rose,  and  every  one  leaned  forward  for  a 
better  sight  of  the  President  to  be,  and  to 
observe  "  how  the  outgoing  President  took 
it."  The  outgoing  President  took  it  ex- 
ceedingly well.  He  could  afford  to  do  so. 
147 


THE   INAUGURATION 

He  had  taken  that  short  walk  down  that 
same  aisle  often  before,  and  he  looked  as 
though  he  took  it  now  for  the  last  time 
with  satisfaction  and  content.  He  smiled 
slightly  as  he  passed  between  his  enemies 
of  the  Senate.  He  could  afford  to  do  that 
also,  for  he  had  kept  a  country  at  peace 
when  they  had  tried  to  drag  it  into  war, 
and  he  had  framed  the  great  Treaty  of 
Arbitration  which  they  had  emasculated  in 
order  to  hurt  him,  and  only  succeeding  in 
hurting  themselves. 

As  the  two  men  walked  down  the  aisle 
together,  Major  McKinley  with  all  his 
troubles  before  him,  in  his  fresh,  new 
clothes,  and  with  an  excited,  nervous  smile 
on  his  clear-cut  face,  looked  like  a  bride- 
groom ;  and  Mr.  Cleveland,  smiling  toler- 
antly, and  with  that  something  about  him 
of  dignity  which  comes  to  a  man  who  has 
held  great  power,  looked  like  his  best  man, 
who  had  been  through  the  ordeal  himself 
and  had  cynical  doubts  as  to  the  future. 

As  the  two  men   seated  themselves,   Mr. 

i48 


THE   INAUGURATION 

Cleveland  on  the  right  and  Major  Mc Kin- 
ley  on  the  left,  the  latter  looked  up  at  the 
gallery  where  his  wife  and  mother  sat  and 
gave  them  a  quick  bow  of  recognition,  as 
though  he  wished  them  to  feel  that  they, 
too,  were  included  in  this,  his  moment  of 
triumph. 

The  ceremony  which  followed  was  brief 
and  full  of  business.  Mr.  Stevenson  read 
a  farewell  address  to  the  Senators,  in  which 
he  said  flattering  things  to  them  and 
thanked  them  for  their  courtesies ;  and  a 
clergyman  read  a  long  prayer,  almost  as 
long  as  the  address  of  the  Vice-President, 
while  the  Senators  gazed  at  their  friends 
in  the  galleries,  and  three  people  in  the 
gallery  stood  up,  while  the  greater  number 
sat  staring  about  them.  Then  Mr.  Steven- 
son  delivered  the  oath  to  Mr.  Hobart,  and 
Mr.  Hobart  took  the  oath  by  bowing  his 
head  gravely,  and  the  country  was  on  the 
instant  in  the  strange  position  of  having 
a  Democratic  President  and  a  Republican 

Vice-President.     Mr.  Hobart  read  his  ad- 

149 


THE   INAUGURATION 

dress  calmly  and  in  the  same  manner  in 
which  the  president  of  a  bank  might  read 
a  report  to  the  board  of  directors.  It  of 
necessity  could  not  contain  anything  of  a 
startling  nature,  as  the  Vice  -  President's 
duties  are  entirely  those  of  a  presiding 
officer.  Mr.  Hobart's  first  duty  as  Vice- 
President  was  to  swear  in  the  new  Sena- 
tors, who  came  up  to  his  desk  in  groups  of 
four,  the  incoming  Senators  being  escorted 
by  the  outgoing  Senators. 

When  the  new  Senators  had  taken  the 
oath,  the  procession  formed  again  with 
the  purpose  of  marching  out  to  the  stand 
erected  in  front  of  the  Senate  wing  of 
the  Capitol,  where  the  chief  ceremony 
of  the  day,  the  swearing  in  of  the  new 
President  by  the  Chief  Justice,  was  to 
take  place. 

But  the  Senate  committee  who  had 
charge  of  the  arrangements,  or  it  may 
have  been  the  young  man  with  the  butter- 
fly tie,  bungled  the  procession  sadly,  and 

the  feelings  of  the  diplomatic  corps  were 
150 


THE   INAUGURATION 

hurt.  The  members  of  a  diplomatic  corps 
usually  take  themselves  seriously,  and  es- 
pecially those  in  Washington,  which  is  a 
post  where  they  have  very  little  to  do  ex- 
cept to  look  after  their  dignity.  And  the 
women  in  Washington  spoil  them,  and  the 
rude  and  untutored  American  politicians, 
some  of  whom  are  opposed  on  principle  to 
the  demoralizing  practice  of  wearing  even- 
ing dress,  do  not  appreciate  the  niceties  of 
the  positions  which  the  foreign  diplomatists 
hold  to  one  another.  The  ministers  were 
hurt,  in  the  first  place,  because  the  ambas- 
sadors had  been  allowed  to  q-o  into  the 
Senate -Chamber  without  them;  they  did 
not  like  the  places  assigned  them  after 
they  had  arrived  there ;  and  when  the  pro- 
cession started  they  found  themselves  left 
to  follow  Congressmen  and  others  before 
whom  they  should  have  taken  precedence. 
So,  instead  of  going  out  on  to  the  platform 
to  witness  the  inauguration  of  the  Presi- 
dent, they  held  an  indignation  meeting  in 
the  draughty  corridors  and  decided  to  go 
151 


THE   INAUGURATION 

home,  which  they  did.  These  gentlemen 
were  the  guests  of  the  nation,  and  the 
members  of  Congress  and  of  the  judiciary 
are  our  own  people  and  acted  as  their 
hosts.  Common  courtesy  and  the  conven- 
tion which  exists  in  other  countries  en- 
join it  upon  a  government  to  give  the 
diplomatic  corps  precedence  of  the  local 
administrators,  just  as  a  host  gives  the 
better  place  at  dinner  to  the  visiting 
stranger,  and  not  to  members  of  his  own 
family.  If  a  thing  is  worth  doing,  it  is 
worth  doing  correctly,  and  either  there 
should  be  no  precedence  at  all  or  it  should 
mean  something,  and  should  show  what  it 
means.  Neither  the  members  of  the  Sen- 
ate nor  of  the  House  gained  any  credit  or 
additional  glory  by  shoving  themselves 
into  places  which  should  by  right  and 
courtesy  have  been  given  to  the  foreign 
ministers.  The  diplomatic  corps,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  there  as  representatives 
of  friendly  powers  to  show  respect  to  the 
new  President ;  and  if,  through  no  fault  of 
152 


THE   INAUGURATION 

his,  they  were  treated  with  insufficient  con- 
sideration, it  would  surely  have  been  better 
for  them  to  witness  the  ceremonies  and 
afterwards  to  lodge  their  complaint.  But 
to  go  away  pouting  like  a  parcel  of  children 
with  their  toys  under  their  arms  was  dis- 
tinctly disrespectful  to  the  President,  and 
was  hardly  the  act  of  gentlemen,  not  even 
of  diplomats. 

The  platform  to  which  the  procession 
made  its  way  was  built  out  upon  the  steps 
of  the  Capitol,  between  the  Senate  wing 
and  the  main  entrance.  It  was  construct- 
ed of  unplaned  boards,  with  a  raised  dais 
in  front,  upon  which  were  three  arm-chairs 
and  a  table ;  around  this  dais  were  many 
chairs  for  the  chief  dignitaries,  and  behind 
this  chosen  circle  were  unplaned  benches 
slanting  back  like  hurdles  to  the  wall  of 
the  Capitol.  There  were  more  than  enough 
of  these  benches,  and  the  spectators  from 
the  Senate-Chamber  did  not  suffice  to  fill 
more  than  half  of  them.  Hence,  at 
the  back  of  the  crowd  on  the  stand 
153 


THE   INAUGURATION 

was  an  ugly  blank  stretch  of  yellow-pine 
boards,  which,  besides  being  undecorative 
in  itself,  gave  the  erroneous  impression 
that  there  was  not  as  full  a  house  as  had 
been  expected,  and  that  the  attraction  had 
failed  to  attract.  Except  for  this  blot  of 
pine  boards,  the  picture  as  the  crowd  saw 
it,  looking  up  from  the  grounds  of  the 
Capitol,  was  a  noble  and  impressive  one, 
full  of  dignity  and  meaning.  Any  scene, 
with  the  Capitol  building  for  a  background, 
must,  of  necessity,  be  impressive.  Its  sit- 
uation is  more  imposing  than  that  of  the 
legislative  buildings  of  any  other  country ; 
the  Houses  of  Parliament  on  the  Thames, 
and  at  Budapest,  on  the  Danube,  appear 
heavy  and  sombre  in  comparison ;  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  on  the  Seine,  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  it  in  any  way.  No 
American  can  look  upon  it,  and  see  its 
great  swelling  dome,  balanced  on  the  broad 
shoulders  of  the  two  marble  wings,  and 
the  myriads  of  steps  leading  to  it,  without 
feeling  a  thrill  of  pride  and  pleasure  that 
154 


THE   INAUGURATION 

so  magnificent  a  monument  should  belong 
to  his  country  and  to  him. 

Rising  directly  above  the  heads  of  the 
crowd  was  the  front  of  the  platform, 
wrapped  with  American  flags  and  colored 
bunting;  above  that  was  the  black  mass 
of  the  spectators,  with  just  here  and  there 
a  bit  of  color  in  a  woman's  gown,  or  in  the 
uniforms  of  the  ambassadors  and  of  the 
few  officers  of  the  army  and  militia.  Be- 
yond these  the  crowd  saw  the  empty 
boards  glaring  in  the  sunshine ;  and  then 
the  grand  facade  of  the  Capitol,  black  with 
spectators,  on  the  steps,  on  the  great  stat- 
ues, along  the  roof,  and  around  the  dome. 
The  crowd  gathered  there  were  so  far  dis- 
tant that  what  went  on  below  was  but  a 
pantomine  to  them,  played  by  tiny,  fore- 
shortened dwarfs. 

To  the  foreigners  in  the  crowd  the  ab- 
sence of  any  guard  or  escort  of  soldiers 
near  the  President,  or  of  soldiers  of  any 
sort,  was  probably  the  most  peculiar  feat- 
ure of  the  scene.  In  no  other  country 
155 


THE   INAUGURATION 

would  the  head  of  the  nation,  whether  he 
rule  by  inheritance  or  is  elected  to  power, 
stand  on  such  an  occasion  so  close  to  the 
people  without  a  military  escort.  The 
President  of  France  does  not  even  go  to 
the  races  at  Longchamps  without  an  es- 
cort of  soldiers.  But  the  President  of  the 
United  States  is  always  unattended,  and 
soldiers  could  not  add  to  the  dignity  of 
his  office.  When  he  rode  in  state,  later 
in  the  day,  from  the  Capitol  to  the  White 
House,  he  was  surrounded  by  cavalry, 
who  were,  however,  part  of  and  in  keeping 
with  the  procession.  But  when  the  Presi- 
dent takes  the  oath  of  office  before  the 
people,  and  delivers  his  inaugural  address, 
there  is  not  a  single  man  in  uniform  to 
stand  between  him  and  his  fellow-country- 
men, crowded  together  so  close  to  him 
that  by  bending  forward  he  could  touch 
them  with  his  hand. 

The  spectacle,  as  it  was  presented  to  the 
people  on   the  stand,  was    more   brilliant 

than  that  seen  by  those  on  the  ground. 

156 


THE   INAUGURATION       ■ 

The  stand  overlooked  a  crowd  of  men, 
among  whom  were  many  women.  It  was 
a  well  -  dressed  crowd  and  well  -  behaved, 
but  by  no  means  a  great  crowd :  at  a  foot- 
ball match  on  Thanksgiving  Day  in  New 
York,  three  times  as  many  people  are 
gathered  together.  But  it  spread  away 
from  the  stand  in  an  unbroken  mass  for 
about  a  hundred  yards,  and  stretched  even 
farther  to  the  right  and  left.  On  the  out- 
skirts people  came  and  stood  for  a  moment 
and  walked  away  again,  moving  in  and 
out  among  the  trees  of  the  Capitol  grounds 
freely,  and  without  police  supervision  or 
interference ;  bicyclers  dismounted  and 
looked  across  the  heads  of  the  mass  for  a 
few  minutes,  and  then  mounted  and  rode 
away.  There  were  no  tickets  of  admission  to 
this  open  space.  The  man  with  the  broad- 
est shoulders,  or  the  woman  who  came  first, 
stood  as  near  to  the  President  as  any  one 
on  the  platform,  and  heard  him  as  easily 
as  though  they  were  conversing  together 
in  the  same  room.  From  the  centie  of 
157 


THE  INAUGURATION 

the  crowd,  rising  like  the  judges'  stands 
at  a  race  -  meeting,  were  three  roughly 
made  shanties,  from  which  cameras  pho- 
tographed the  actors  on  the  platform  at 
the  rate  of  several  thousands  of  exposures 
a  minute,  which  photographs  were  a  few 
days  later  to  reproduce  the  scene  from  the 
stage  of  a  dozen  different  theatres  all  over 
the  United  States. 

Three  or  four  troops  of  the  United 
States  cavalry,  and  two  troops  of  the 
smart  cavalry  from  Cleveland,  were  drawn 
up  at  the  edge  of  the  crowd,  and  the  shin- 
ing coats  of  the  horses,  and  the  tossing 
plumes  in  the  helmets,  and  the  yellow- 
topped  busbies,  made  a  brilliant  bit  of  col- 
or under  the  trees.  Back  of  all  was  the 
front  of  the  new  Congressional  Library, 
trying  not  to  look  like  the  facade  of  the 
Paris  Opera- House,  with  its  gilded  dome 
flashing  in  the  warm  sunshine. 

The  family  and  friends  of  the  President, 
who  were  so  numerous  that  it  seemed  as 
though  the  entire  town  of  Canton  had 
158 


THE   INAUGURATION 

moved  down  upon  Washington,  took  their 
places  around  the  dais,  and  the  crowd 
cheered  Major  McKinley's  wife  and  Major 
McKinleys  mother.  And  the  ladies  smiled 
and  bowed,  and  appeared  supremely  happy 
and  content,  as  they  looked  down  upon 
the  faces  in  the  crowd,  which  had  turned 
a  queer  ghastly  white  in  the  bright  sun- 
light, and  appeared,  as  they  were  all  raised 
simultaneously,  like  a  carpet  of  human 
heads. 

The  procession,  as  it  came  from  the 
Senate-Chamber,  was  not  as  effective  as 
it  might  have  been,  for  it  came  by  jerks 
and  starts,  with  long  spaces  in  between, 
and  then  in  groups,  the  members  of  which 
crowded  on  each  other's  heels.  Senators 
and  Representatives,  who  had  lagged  be- 
hind, in  their  anxiety  to  catch  up  with  the 
procession,  walked  across  the  benches, 
stepping  from  one  to  another  as  boys  race 
each  other  to  the  place  in  the  front  row  of 
the  top  gallery.  The  crowd  below  cheer- 
ed  mightily  when   it   saw  the    President 

*59 


THE   INAUGURATION 

and  President-elect,  and  Major  McKinley 
walked  out  on  the  dais,  and  bowed  bare- 
headed many  times,  while  Mr.  Cleveland, 
who  throughout  the  day  had  left  the  cen- 
tre of  the  stage  entirely  to  his  friend, 
gazed  about  him  at  the  swaying  crowd, 
and  perhaps  remembered  two  other  in- 
augural addresses,  which  he  had  delivered 
to  much  the  same  crowd  from  the  same 
platform. 

The  people  were  not  kept  waiting  long, 
for  the  ceremony  that  makes  a  President 
lasts  less  than  six  minutes,  while  six  hours 
are  required  to  fasten  the  crown  upon  the 
Czar  of  Russia  and  to  place  the  sceptre  in 
his  hand.  One  stone  in  that  sceptre  is 
worth  one  million  of  dollars,  the  crown 
three  millions,  and  all  the  rulers  of  Europe, 
or  their  representatives,  and  great  generals 
and  statesmen,  surround  the  Emperor  while 
he  takes  the  oath  of  office  in  the  chapel  of 
the  gilded  walls  and  jewelled  pillars.  And 
outside  seventy  thousand  soldiers  guard  his 

safety.    The  President  of  the  United  States 
1 60 


THE    INAUGURATION 

last  March  took  his  oath  of  office  on  a 
Bible  which  had  been  given  him  by  the  col- 
ored congregation  of  a  Methodist  church, 
with  the  sunshine  on  his  head  in  place  of 
a  crown,  with  his  mother  and  wife  sitting 
near  him  on  yellow  kitchen  chairs,  and 
his  only  sceptre  was  the  type-written  ad- 
dress bulging  from  the  pocket  of  his  frock- 
coat. 

The  little  Chief  Justice  in  his  vast  silken 
robe  took  the  Bible  which  the  clerk  of  the 
Senate  handed  to  him  and  held  it  open 
before  the  President-elect,  and  the  Presi- 
dent, who  was  in  a  moment  to  be  the  ex- 
President,  stood  up  beside  them,  with  his 
hat  in  his  hand  and  his  head  bared  to  the 
spring  breeze,  and  turned  and  looked  down 
kindly  at  the  people  massed  below. 

The  people  saw  three  men  dressed 
plainly  in  black,  one  of  them  grave  and 
judicial,  another  pale  and  earnest,  and  the 
third  looking  out  across  the  mob  unmoved 
and  content.  The  noise  and  movement 
among  the  people  were  stilled  for  a  mo- 

L  161 


THE   INAUGURATION 

ment  as  the  voice  of  the  Chief  Justice  re- 
cited the  oath  of  office.  As  he  spoke,  it 
was  as  though  he  had  pronounced  an  in- 
cantation, for,  although  the  three  figures 
remained  as  they  were,  so  far  as  the  people 
could  see,  a  great  transformation  which 
the  people  could  not  see  passed  over  the 
whole  of  the  land,  and  its  influence  pene- 
trated to  the  furthermost  corners  of  the 
earth.  There  came  a  new  face  at  the 
door  and  a  new  step  on  the  floor,  and 
men  who  had  thoughts  above  office,  men 
who  held  office,  and  men  who  hoped  to 
hold  office  recognized  the  change  that 
had  come.  It  came  to  the  postmaster  of 
the  fourth  class  buried  in  the  snows  near 
British  Columbia,  to  the  ambassador  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  to  the  inspector 
of  customs  where  the  Rio  Grande  cuts 
Mexico  from  the  alkali  plains  and  chap- 
arral of  Texas,  to  the  gauger  on  the  coral 
reef  of  Key  West,  to  the  revenue -officer 
among  the  moonshiners  on  Smoky  Moun- 
tain, to  American  consuls  in  Europe,  in 
162 


THE   INAUGURATION 

South  America,  in  Asia,  in  the  South  Pa- 
cific isles.  Little  men  who  had  been  made 
cabinet  ministers  became  little  men  again, 
and  dwindled  and  sank  into  oblivion  ;  other 
little  men  grew  suddenly  into  big  men, 
until  the  name  and  fame  of  them  filled 
the  land ;  mills  that  had  been  closed  down 
sprang  into  usefulness;  in  other  mills 
wheels  ceased  to  turn  and  furnace  fires 
grew  cold ;  the  lakes  of  Nicaragua  moved 
as  though  a  hand  had  stirred  the  waters, 
and  began  to  flow  from  ocean  to  ocean 
and  to  cut  a  continent  in  two ;  stocks  rose 
and  fell ;  ministers  of  foreign  affairs  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  planned  new  treaties  and 
new  tariffs;  a  newspaper  correspondent 
in  a  calaboose  in  Cuba  saw  the  jail  doors 
swing  open  and  the  Spanish  comandante 
beckon  him  out ;  and  the  boy  orator 
of  the  Platte,  who  had  been  given  the 
votes  of  nearly  seven  million  citizens, 
heard  the  door  of  the  White  House 
close  in  his  face  and  shut  him  out  for- 
ever. 

163 


THE   INAUGURATION 

A  government  had  changed  hands  with 
the  quietness  and  dignity  of  the  voice 
of  the  Chief  Justice  itself,  and  as  Major 
McKinley  bent  to  kiss  the  open  Bible 
he  became  the  executive  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  and  Gro- 
ver  Cleveland  one  of  the  many  millions 
of  American  citizens  he  had  sworn  to 
protect. 

A  few  foolish  people  attended  the  inau- 
guration exercises  and  went  away  disap- 
pointed. This  was  not  because  the  exer- 
cises were  not  of  interest,  but  for  the 
reason  that  the  visitors  saw  them  from  the 
wrong  point  of  view.  They  apparently 
expected  to  find  in  the  inauguration  of  the 
President  of  a  republic  the  same  glitter 
and  display  that  they  had  witnessed  in  state 
ceremonies  in  Europe.  And  by  looking 
for  pomp  and  rigid  etiquette  and  official- 
ism they  missed  the  whole  significance  of 
the  inauguratian,  which  is  not  intended  to 
glorify  any  one  man,  but  is  a  national 
celebration,  in  which  every  citizen  has  a 
164 


THE   INAUGURATION 

share — a  sort  of  family  gathering,  where 
all  the  members  of  the  clan,  from  the  resi- 
dents of  the  thirteen  original  States  to 
those  of  that  State  which  has  put  the  lat- 
est star  in  the  flag,  are  brought  together 
to  rejoice  over  a  victory  and  to  make  the 
best  of  a  defeat.  There  is  no  such  cel- 
ebration in  any  other  country,  and  it  is 
surely  much  better  to  enjoy  it  as  some- 
thing unique  in  its  way  and  distinctly  our 
own,  than  to  compare  some  of  its  features 
with  like  features  of  coronations  and  royal 
weddings  abroad,  in  which  certain  ruling 
families  glorify  themselves  and  the  people 
pay  the  bill.  Why  should  we  go  out  of 
our  way  to  compare  cricket  in  America 
with  cricket  as  it  is  played  on  its  native 
turf  in  England  when  we  have  a  national 
game  of  our  own  which  we  play  better  than 
any  one  else  ? 

There  was  an  effort  made  before   the 
inauguration  by  certain  anarchistic  news- 
papers in  New  York  to   make   it   appear 
that  the  managers  of  ceremonies  at  Wash- 
es 


THE   INAUGURATION 

ington  were  aping  the  extravagant  and 
ostentatious  festivities  of  a  monarchy,  and 
it  was  pointed  out  with  indignation  that 
the  inauguration  would  probably  cost  a 
half-million  of  dollars,  of  which  the  govern- 
ment would  pay  the  larger  part,  and  com- 
mittees and  private  subscribers  would  make 
up  the  rest.  This  estimate  looks  rather 
small  when  it  is  remembered  that  at  the 
coronation  of  the  Czar  the  sum  spent  on 
ten  sets  of  harness  used  in  the  procession 
alone  amounted  to  eighty  thousand  dollars, 
which  is  more  than  the  actual  cost  of  the 
entire  inaugural  exercises.  So  it  can  be 
seen  that  the  laurels  of  our  foreign  friends, 
in  this  respect  at  least,  are  as  yet  quite  safe 
from  us.  It  is  impossible  to  compare  the 
inauguration  with  state  celebrations  abroad, 
because  the  whole  spirit  of  the  thing  is  dif- 
ferent. In  Europe  the  people  have  little 
part  in  a  state  function  except  as  specta- 
tors. They  pay  taxes  to  support  a  royal 
family  and  a  standing  army,  and  when  a 
part  of  the  royal  family  or  a  part  of  the 

166 


THE  INAUGURATION 

army  goes  out  on  parade  the  people  line 
the  sidewalks  and  look  on. 

In  the  inaugural  procession  the  people 
themselves  are  the  performers ;  the  rulers 
for  the  time  being  are  of  their  own  choos- 
ing ;  and  the  people  not  only  march  in  the 
parade,  but  they  accomplish  the  somewhat 
difficult  feat  of  standing  on  the  sidewalks 
and  watching  themselves  as  they  do  it. 
There  is  all  the  difference  between  the  two 
that  there  is  between  an  amateur  perform- 
ance in  which  every  one  in  the  audience 
knows  every  one  on  the  stage,  and  has 
helped  to  make  the  thing  a  success,  and  a 
professional  performance  where  the  spec- 
tators pay  a  high  price  to  have  some  one 
else  amuse  them. 

Every  man  who  had  voted  the  straight 
Republican  ticket,  and  every  Democrat 
who  had  voted  for  Major  McKinley  be- 
cause he  represented  sound  money,  felt 
that  his  vote  gave  him  a  share  in  the  in- 
auguration,  and   that   he  had  as  good   a 

right  to  celebrate  the  event  as  Mr.  Mark 

167 


THE   INAUGURATION 

Hanna  himself;  so  the  inaugural  proces- 
sion and  the  inaugural  ball  which  fol- 
lowed the  swearing  in  of  the  new  Presi- 
dent were  distinctly  representative  of  the 
whole  people,  and  not  especially  of  any 
party,  and  certainly  not  of  any  class.  In 
the  inaugural  parade  there  were  many 
magnificent  displays  by  the  military  and 
some  superb  uniforms  and  excellent  music, 
and  distinguished  men  from  all  over  the 
Union,  but  the  feature  of  the  parade  was 
its  democracy.  It  represented  the  people, 
and  every  condition  of  the  people ;  the 
people  got  it  up,  and  the  people  carried  it 
through  to  success,  and  their  brothers  and 
cousins  stood  by  and  applauded  them. 
Parts  of  it  were  homely  and  parts  of  it 
were  absurd,  and  some  of  it  dragged  and 
was  tiresome ;  but  the  part  that  bored  one 
spectator  was  probably  the  very  feature  of 
the  parade  which  the  man  standing  next 
to  him  enjoyed  the  most. 

It  was  a  great  family  outing,  and  it  was 
interesting  to  hear  the  people  of  Washing- 

168 


THE   INAUGURATION 

ton  —  many  of  whom  do  not  know  that 
there  is  any  cultivated  land  lying  beyond 
the  shadow  of  the  Washington  monu- 
ment— cheering  their  fellow-countrymen 
from  the  far  West  and  North,  and  to  hear 
the  bands  playing  "  Dixie "  and  "  My 
Maryland,"  which,  had  they  been  whistled 
in  the  streets  of  Washington  some  years 
before,  would  have  brought  out  a  riot  in- 
stead of  cheers.  It  was  interesting  also  to 
see  the  white  folks  applauding  the  colored 
troops,  and  the  old  G.  A.  R.  veteran  who 
would  not  have  had  his  lost  arm  back 
again  on  that  day  for  several  pensions,  and 
to  see  the  ambassador  to  France  march- 
ing in  the  same  column  with  the  men 
against  whom  he  had  fought  at  Grant's 
side. 

It  was  a  great  pity  that  more  Americans 
could  not  have  seen  the  bluejackets  from 
the  ships  of  war  rolling  and  swaggering 
down  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  which  is  the 
finest  boulevard  for  such  a  procession  that 

this  country  affords,  and  the  engineers  with 

169 


THE    INAUGURATION 

their  red  capes,  the  cavalry  with  their 
yellow  plumes  and  two  thousand  sabres 
flashing  in  the  sunlight,  and  the  bicycle 
corps  creeping  and  balancing  at  a  snail's 
pace. 

Next  to  the  bluejackets,  who  are  al- 
ways first  in  the  hearts  of  their  country- 
men, the  light -blue  uniforms  and  red 
capes  of  the  engineers  probably  pleased 
the  people  best.  They  were  all  good  and 
splendid  in  their  own  way,  whether  it  was 
the  rows  on  rows  of  infantry  with  their 
white  facings,  or  the  gauntlets  and  plumes 
of  the  cavalry,  or  the  shining  guns  of  the 
artillery  crawling  disjointedly  like  great 
iron  spiders  over  the  smooth  asphalt. 

There  was  a  foreign  touch  and  a  sug- 
gestion of  Europe  in  the  jackets  of  Troop 
A  of  Cleveland  on  their  magnificent  black 
horses,  in  the  brass-spiked  helmets  of  the 
Essex  troop,  and  in  the  new,  light-blue 
uniforms  of  the  squad  from  Troop  A  of 
New  York,  who  looked  even  handsomer 

than  when  they  wore  the  service  uniform. 

170 


THE   INAUGURATION 

These  are  all  militiamen,  but  they  are 
rough  riders  and  trick  riders,  and  can 
clear  a  street  during  a  riot  or  sit  their 
horses  and  dodge  coupling-pins  with  the 
sang-froid  and  coolness  of  real  veterans. 

There  was  one  cavalry  troop  that  was 
missed  at  the  inauguration  which  should 
have  been  there,  and,  because  of  its  tra- 
ditions, should  always  be  the  escort  of 
the  incoming  President.  The  First  City 
Troop  of  Philadelphia  took  part  in  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  and  in  every  war 
in  which  this  country  has  been  engaged. 
It  is  a  small  body,  but  it  sent  eighty  offi- 
cers in  command  of  cavalry  regiments 
into  the  civil  war.  This  troop  acted  as 
the  escort  of  General  Washington  when 
he  was  President,  and  as  the  body-guard  of 
almost  every  other  new  President.  Gen- 
eral Harrison,  however,  broke  the  prece- 
dent, and  preferred  to  have  some  of  the 
members  of  his  old  regiment  act  as  his 
body-guard.  Major  McKinley  followed  his 

example.      The  next  President  may   like 
171 


THE    INAUGURATION 

to  have  his  bicycle  club  escort  him.  The 
action  of  General  Harrison  was  no  doubt 
pleasant  for  the  Grand  Army  pensioners 
and  his  personal  friends  of  the  old  regi- 
ment, but  it  is  a  question  whether  the 
people  would  not  have  preferred  the  record 
and  the  magnificence  of  the  City  Troop, 
who  may  be  considered  to  have  inherited 
their  right  to  act  as  the  escort  of  the 
President. 

When  the  government,  as  represented 
by  the  soldiers  and  the  bluejackets,  had 
inspired  the  spectators  with  pride  and 
patriotism,  the  people  themselves,  as  rep- 
resented by  the  militia  and  the  Governors 
of  the  different  States  and  political  or- 
ganizations, fell  into  line  behind  them, 
and  showed  how  well  they  could  march, 
and  claimed  their  share  of  the  public 
triumph  and  the  public  applause.  Some 
of  the  militia  regiments  marched  as  well 
as  the  regulars,  or  better,  and  the  naval 
cadets  from    New  Jersey,   Maryland,  and 

Rhode   Island  would  have  passed  inspec- 

172 


THE    INAUGURATION 

tion  as  "  apprentices "  for  a  real  ship  of 
war.  There  were  many  different  kinds 
of  uniform,  and  the  men  who  wore  them 
came  from  such  great  distances  that  their 
presence  in  Washington  brought  home 
the  fact  of  how  far-reaching  is  the  sway 
of  the  republic,  and  how  broad  its  terri- 
tory. There  were  the  Hemming  Guards, 
Texas  volunteers  from  Gainesville,  Texas, 
who  won  their  uniforms  only  last  July  by 
scoring  977  at  the  State  encampment,  and 
who  appeared  in  them  at  the  inaugura- 
tion. And  near  these  new  soldiers  from 
the  largest  State,  was  what  is  perhaps  the 
oldest  organization,  from  the  smallest  State, 
the  Newport  Artillery,  which  antedates 
the  Union,  and  exists  under  a  charter 
from  King  George  II.  in  1739,  when  Eng- 
land declared  war  on  Spain — a  charter 
which  was  ratified  in  1782  by  the  Rhode 
Island  General  Assembly.  There  was  also 
the  Fifth  Regiment  of  Maryland,  which 
has  a  reputation  almost  as  great  as  that  of 
the  New  York  Seventh,  and  there  was  the 
173 


THE   INAUGURATION 

Seventy-first  of  that  city,  a  body  which 
has  its  nucleus  in  the  American  Rifles ; 
there  was  the  order  of  the  Old  Guard 
from  the  modern  city  of  Chicago,  but 
which  is  composed  of  descendants  of  men 
who  fought  in  the  Indian  wars  and  French 
wars,  and  in  the  wars  of  the  Revolution 
and  of  1812;  and  a  few  members  of  the 
Medal  of  Honor  Legion,  to  each  of  whom 
Congress  had  voted  a  medal  for  bravery  on 
the  field  of  battle.  There  were,  too,  the 
Shenandoah  Valley  Patriotic  League,  from 
Virginia,  formed  of  ex-Confederate  soldiers 
and  their  sons,  with  the  motto,  "  There 
should  be  no  North,  no  South,  no  East,  no 
West,  but  a  common  country,"  and  a  dele- 
gation from  the  Harmony  Pre-Legion  of 
Philadelphia,  a  relic  of  the  old  Harmony 
fire  company,  in  helmets  and  red  shirts  ; 
and  there  was  the  Republican  Glee  Club 
of  Columbus,  which  has  sung  patriotic 
songs  in  every  national  campaign  since  that 
of  Grant  and  Greeley. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  organizations 
174 


THE   INAUGURATION 

that  passed  up  Pennsylvania  Avenue  in 
the  brilliant  afternoon  sunshine  between 
curtains  of  flags,  with  brass  bands,  every 
one  of  them  playing  "  El  Capitan"  or  the 
"  Washington  Post  March."  These  are 
but  a  few,  but  they  illustrate  the  varied 
nature  of  the  procession.  They  repre- 
sented, as  it  were,  the  whole  people. 

There  was  one  feature  of  the  parade 
which  would  have  puzzled  the  foreigner 
had  he  understood  its  significance,  and 
which  was  a  commentary  on  our  political 
system.  It  was  the  number  of  clubs  and 
organizations  which  bore  the  name  and 
existed  for  the  personal  and  selfish  aggran- 
dizement of  some  one  man,  and  that  man 
seldom  a  great  man  or  a  wise  man  or  a 
man  of  whom  many  people  outside  of  his 
own  city  had  ever  heard.  Every  one  must 
recognize  the  importance  of  political  organ- 
izations ;  and  when  they  are  called  the 
Junior  Political  Club  of  the  Fourth  Ward, 
or  the  Unconditional  Republican  Club 
of  Albany,  or  the  First  Voters'  Repub- 
175 


THE   INAUGURATION 

lican  League  of  Detroit,  their  object  for 
existing  is  obvious,  and  may  be  approved 
by  every  one,  be  he  a  Democrat,  a  mug- 
wump, or  a  Populist.  But  when  three 
hundred  men  march  under  a  banner  bear- 
ing the  name  and  features  of  "  Matt"  Quay 
or  "  Tom  "  Piatt  or  "  Dave  "  Martin,  the 
spectator  is  reminded  not  of  a  republic 
where  every  citizen  is  supposed  to  vote 
freely  and  as  his  conscience  dictates,  but  of 
the  feudal  days,  and  of  the  baron  and  his 
serfs  and  retainers.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
stand why  the  political  boss  exists,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  boss,  or  why  a  slave- 
holder should  be  willing  to  hold  slaves,  but 
it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the  slaves 
themselves  should  rejoice  in  their  degrada- 
tion and  wish  to  publish  it  abroad.  Any 
one  might  be  proud  to  march  in  the  ranks 
of  an  organization  that  bore  the  name  of 
an  American  who  had  accomplished  some- 
thing for  his  country,  who  had  lived  and 
died  for  a  great  truth,  or  who  had  repre- 
sented a  noble  idea.  But  why  should  men 
i76 


THE   INAUGURATION 

wear  the  collar  of  a  boss  where  every  one 
can  see  it ;  and  why  should  they,  for  fear 
that  every  one  should  not  see  it,  hire  a  brass 
band  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  it  on  ?  These  gentlemen  who  marched 
on  Inauguration  Day  were,  so  the  papers 
said,  prominent  business  men,  lawyers,  and 
bankers.  Many  of  them  certainly  looked 
as  if  they  belonged  to  that  class ;  but  if 
they  were  men  of  intelligence,  why  could 
they  not  see  how  undemocratic  and  how 
un-American  they  were  in  giving  their  con- 
sciences into  the  hands  of  one  man  ?  One 
organization  of  nearly  a  thousand  had  for 
its  motto,  "We  follow  where  Quigg  leads." 
Now  Mr.  Quigg  may  be,  probably  is,  a  well- 
meaning  young  man,  but  why  should  a 
thousand  men  travel  all  the  way  to  Wash- 
ington when  representatives  from  every 
part  of  the  Union  are  gathered  together 
there,  and  proclaim  to  them  that  they  are 
no  longer  freeborn  American  citizens  with 
a  sacred  right  to  vote  as  they  please,  but 

merely  tools  and  heelers  for  "  Quigg"? 
M  177 


THE   INAUGURATION 

These  are  the  very  same  Americans  who 
boast  of  their  independence  in  the  smoking- 
room  of  ocean  steamers  and  in  the  railway 
carriages  of  Continental  railroads,  forget- 
ting that  there  are  few  people  in  Europe 
who  are  ruled  by  such  a  boss  as  this  or 
that  one  designated  on  these  banners.  If 
they  are  so  ruled  they  are  ashamed  of  the 
fact,  and  do  not  paint  his  face  on  a  silk 
banner  as  though  he  were  a  saint,  and 
bow  down  to  it,  or  carry  a  gilded  spear 
with  a  pennant  bearing  his  name  at  its 
point. 

"Who,"  the  poor  king -ridden  visitor 
might  have  asked  at  Washington,  as  the 
clubs  went  marching  by  with  these  pen- 
nants — "  who  is  Kurtz,  or  Quigg,  or 
Quay?"_ 

Who  indeed! 

But  how  much  more  important  it  would 
be  to  know  who  the  men  are  who  glorify 
them,  and  who  have  sunk  their  indepen- 
dence so  far  that,  for  the  chance  of  getting 

a  window  in  a  post-office,  or  a  policeman's 

i73 


THE   INAUGURATION 

uniform,  they  will  march  through  the  dirty 
streets  under  their  banners. 

However,  these  men  formed  but  a  small 
part  of  this  extremely  democratic  proces- 
sion, and  their  presence  in  it  was  soon  for- 
gotten. It  was  the  soldiers  and  the  blue- 
jackets, the  militia  and  the  naval  reserve, 
that  the  spectators  remembered,  the  men 
who  carry  a  United  States  flag,  and  not  a 
banner  bearing  a  man's  portrait,  and  who 
serve  unselfishly  their  State  and  country, 
and  are  willing  to  follow  their  leaders  to 
more  dangerous  places  than  the  club-room 
and  the  polling-booth. 

When  the  vanguard  of  the  procession 
reached  the  White  House,  Mr.  Cleveland, 
who  had  accompanied  the  President  on 
his  return  journey  from  the  Capitol,  but 
seated  now  on  his  left  instead  of  on  his 
right,  entered  the  White  House  perhaps 
for  the  last  time,  and  left  it  again  imme- 
diately. 

No  incident  of  the  inauguration  exer- 
cises is  so  significant  or  dramatic  as  this 
179 


THE   INAUGURATION 

abrupt  departure  into  private  life  of  the 
ex-President.  There  is  no  farewell  speech 
for  him  to  make,  no  post-mortem  address 
such  as  the  one  the  Vice  -  President  de- 
livers. The  ex- President's  works  must 
speak  for  him,  and  he  departs  in  silence 
and  unattended. 

On  this  last  occasion,  while  the  new 
President  walked  out  to  the  reviewing- 
stand  in  front  of  the  White  House  grounds, 
and  the  spectators  on  the  grandstand  op- 
posite rose  to  cheer  him,  Mr.  Cleveland 
stepped  into  his  carriage  at  a  side  door, 
and,  leaving  the  house  he  had  occupied  for 
eight  of  the  best  years  of  his  life,  drove 
away  with  no  more  important  business  be- 
fore him  than  a  few  days'  fishing.  The 
blare  of  the  bands  and  the  cheers  for 
his  successor  in  office  followed  him,  but 
the  faces  of  the  people  were  turned  away ; 
they  were  greeting  the  new  and  rising 
sun ;  and,  freed  from  the  terrible  responsi- 
bilities of  office,  from  abuse  and  criticism, 
and  from  the  glare  that  falls  even  more 

iSo 


THE  INAUGURATION 

impudently  upon  the  President  of  a  re- 
public than  upon  a  throne,  Mr.  Cleveland 
was  driven,  a  free  man  once  again,  to  the 
Seventh  Street  wharf,  where  a  tender  with 
steam  up  was  awaiting  his  coming.  Two 
of  his  friends  hurried  him  on  board,  the 
ropes  were  cast  off,  the  captain  jingled  his 
bell  into  the  depths  of  the  engine-room, 
and  the  ex -President  glided  peacefully 
down  the  Potomac,  sorting  out  his  rods 
and  lines  on  the  deck,  and  intent  only 
upon  the  holiday  before  him. 

Our  local  historians  and  political  writ- 
ers, John  Bach  McMaster,  Woodrow  Wil- 
son, and  Albert  Shaw,  have  already  placed 
Mr.  Cleveland  high  among  the  Presidents, 
and,  as  time  wears  on,  and  the  grievances 
and  disappointments  which  explain  so 
much  of  the  criticism  that  he  has  received 
shall  have  passed  away,  he  will  be  remem- 
bered if  only  for  the  things  he  dared  to 
leave  undone.  He  will  take  his  place  in 
history  as  a  man  more  hated  and  more 
respected  than  any  of  his  immediate  pre- 

181 


THE   INAUGURATION 

decessors,  and  as  one  of  the  three  great 
Presidents  of  America. 

Before  the  two  men  had  parted  at  the 
White  House  steps,  Mrs.  Cleveland  re- 
ceived Mrs.  McKinley  on  her  return  from 
the  Capitol,  and  put  a  bunch  of  flowers 
in  her  hand,  and  led  her  to  the  luncheon 
she  had  prepared  for  her  and  her  guests, 
and  then  slipped  away  as  quietly  as  her 
husband,  to  make  ready  the  new  home 
they  have  chosen  in  the  pretty  old  town 
of  Princeton.  And  while  the  new  first 
lady  of  the  land  was  receiving  the  greet- 
ings from  the  populace  in  front  of  the 
White  House,  its  late  mistress  was  speed- 
ing away  through  the  late  afternoon  twi- 
light, her  car  swamped  with  the  flowers 
that  had  come  to  her  from  every  part  of 
the  United  States,  and  carrying  w7ith  her 
into  her  new  life  in  her  new  home  the  best 
wishes  of  a  great  nation. 

The  inaugural  ball  was  held  in  the 
Pension   Building;   it  was  as  democratic 

in  its  way  as  was  the  parade,  and  it  was 

182 


THE   INAUGURATION 

as  successful.  Any  one  who  paid  five 
dollars  was  welcome,  and  no  one  after  he 
had  arrived  made  himself  unwelcome.  That 
is  much  more  than  can  be  said  of  many 
other  public  balls  given  for  charity  or  for 
the  benefit  of  some  organization,  and  to 
which  access  is  more  difficult.  The  most 
successful  feature  of  the  ball  was  perhaps 
the  decoration  of  the  building,  the  original 
character  of  which — if  anything  connected 
with  our  pension  system  can  be  said  to 
have  a  character — was  completely  hidden 
by  the  most  charming  and  graceful  ar- 
rangement of  white  and  yellow  draperies 
and  flowering  yellow  plants  and  great 
green  palms  and  palmettoes.  This  scheme 
of  color,  of  white  and  yellow  with  dark 
green,  was  continued  over  the  entire  ball- 
room. 

The  Pension  Building  is  arranged 
around  a  great  court,  which  is  overhung 
with  galleries  and  has  a  high  roof  120  feet 
from  the  tiled  floor.  This  court  is  divided 
into  smaller  courts  by  rows  of  immense 
183 


THE    INAUGURATION 

pillars.  On  the  night  of  the  ball  the  roof 
over  each  of  the  three  sections  was  hidden 
by  streamers  of  white  challis  as  wide  as 
the  sails  of  a  ship,  which  were  caught  up 
together  in  the  centre  by  bunches  of  white 
electric  lights,  and  fell  from  them  in  billowy 
folds  to  meet  and  wind  about  the  pillars. 
To  one  who  looked  up  at  the  ceiling  it 
appeared  as  though  he  were  standing  in  a 
great  white  tent  rather  than  in  a  house  of 
stone  and  iron,  and  the  effect  of  the  elec- 
tric lights  against  the  soft  white  folds  of  the 
challis  was  that  of  yellow  diamonds  shin- 
ing through  spun  silver.  The  huge  pillars 
were  treated  to  resemble  onyx,  and  were 
built  high  about  the  base  with  flowering 
plants,  all  of  yellow — yellow  jonquils,  yel- 
low tulips,  and  acacias.  Along  the  galleries 
and  across  the  white  ceiling  crept  long  del- 
icate vines  of  ivy,  and  hidden  among  the 
sturdier  palms  and  palmettoes  on  the  floor 
were  hundreds  of  tiny  electric  globes  glow- 
ing like  red  and  green  fire -flies.  There 
were  many  uniforms  in  the  crush,  and  more 
184 


THE   INAUGURATION 

gold  lace  than  this  country  has  probably 
ever  seen  gathered  into  one  place  before ; 
and  there  were  some  fine  gowns,  and  some 
gowns  which  were  peculiar.  A  number  of 
the  women  wore  black  silk  frocks  or  their 
street  dress,  but  they  made  up  for  the 
simplicity  of  these  by  the  brilliancy  of  the 
silk  badges  with  which  they  had  covered 
themselves  from  shoulder  to  shoulder.  The 
shoulders  of  a  few  other  women  were  their 
most  conspicuous  feature,  and  they  were, 
in  consequence,  objects  of  the  most  earnest 
interest  to  many  grave-eyed  strangers  from 
the  far  interior,  in  frock-coats  and  white 
satin  ties,  who  had  read  about  such  things 
in  the  papers,  but  who  disbelieved  in  them 
as  they  disbelieved  in  the  existence  of 
bunco-steerers.  One  stranger  had  brought 
his  little  child  with  him,  who  went  to  sleep 
on  his  shoulder,  and  he  carried  her  there 
all  the  evening  while  he  pushed  his  way 
through  the  crowd,  serious  and  solemn- 
eyed,  and  unconscious  that  he  was  in  any 
way  conspicuous. 

I35 


THE   INAUGURATION 

Women  of  great  social  position,  as  it  is 
meted  out  to  them  in  the  columns  of  the 
Sunday  papers,  passed  in  the  crowd  un- 
recognized and  unobserved,  while  other 
women,  through  a  somewhat  novel  arrange- 
ment of  fur  capes  on  a  silk  shirt-waist,  or 
a  gown  covered  with  silk  flowers,  received 
the  respectful  attention  which  they  de- 
served. It  was  the  people's  ball,  and  the 
manners  of  the  people,  as  contrasted  with 
those  of  that  same  "  society "  which  is 
chronicled  in  the  papers,  were  much  the 
finer  of  the  two.  They  were  not  afraid  to 
enjoy  themselves,  and  they  were  genial 
and  unaffected  and  genuinely  polite,  in- 
troducing all  their  friends  to  all  of  their 
other  friends  whenever  they  met,  while  the 
men  seldom  gave  an  arm  to  less  than  three 
of  the  ladies  in  their  care. 

There  were  ambassadors  and  their  wives; 
Governors  of  States  surrounded  by  aides 
to  the  number  of  a  dozen  or  more,  glitter- 
ing with  gold  braids  and  flashing  scab- 
bards ;    there  were  beautiful  women  from 

1S6 


THE   INAUGURATION 

the  South  and  West,  and  women  from  the 
sister  republics  of  South  America,  with 
strange  little  dark-skinned  husbands ;  and 
there  were  countless  numbers  of  well- 
dressed  women  whose  clothes  came  from 
Europe,  and  who  were  anxious  to  go  back 
to  Europe  again  as  the  wives  of  newly  ap- 
pointed ministers  or  secretaries  of  legation, 
and  who  followed  the  passing  of  Mark 
Hanna  with  anxious  and  agitated  eyes. 

Just  before  the  President  and  Mrs.  Mc- 
Kinley  entered  the  ballroom  the  commit- 
teemen pushed  their  way  through  the 
crowd  and  asked  the  men  standing  near- 
est to  them  to  join  hands  with  the  men 
next  them,  and  in  this  way  they  formed  two 
long  lines  of  young  men  who  never  had 
met  before,  who  would  probably  never  meet 
again,  and  who  had  no  interest  in  common 
except  their  anxiety  that  the  ball  should 
pass  off  well.  Through  these  lines  of  vol- 
unteers the  President  and  his  wife  passed, 
followed  by  the  members  of  his  cabinet, 
and  the  people  bowed  and  smiled  and 
187 


THE   INAUGURATION 

beamed  upon  them  much  as  the  crowd  in  a 
church  does  when  the  bride  and  the  groom 
come  back  from  the  altar  up  the  aisle.  In 
a  foreign  country  there  would  have  been 
soldiers  or  policemen  to  push  the  crowd 
back  and  to  clear  the  way  for  the  ruler  of 
the  nation.  How  much  pleasanter  it  was 
to  have  the  men  in  the  crowd  act  as  their 
own  police  and  look  after  their  own  Presi- 
dent themselves! 

The  casual  picking  up  of  these  young 
men  and  pressing  them  into  this  particular 
service  was  typical  of  all  of  the  inaugu- 
ration ceremonies.  It  shows  where  our 
celebration  differed  from  that  other  great 
ceremonial  which  took  place  last  year  at 
Moscow. 

The  coronation  ceremony,  parade,  and 
ball  were  state  ceremonials,  to  pay  for  which 
the  people  were  taxed  forty  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  at  which  their  part  was  to  stand 
behind  two  rows  of  soldiers  and  look  at 
fireworks  in  the  sky. 

The  inauguration  exercises,  the  parade, 

iSS 


THE   INAUGURATION 

and  the  ball  were  all  a  part  of  a  celebration 
of  the  victory  of  honesty  and  of  principle 
for  the  American  people,  and  at  these  cer- 
emonies the  people  themselves  were  the 
chief  actors. 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

The  Illustrations  in  this  Article  are  Reproductions  from  Photographs 
taken  by  Mr.  Davis 


WITH  THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 


THE  strategic  position  of  the  Greek 
and  Turkish  armies  in  the  late  cam- 
paign was  but  little  more  complicated  than 
the  strategic  position  of  two  football  teams 
when  they  are  lined  up  for  a  scrimmage. 
When  the  game  began,  the  Greeks  had 
possession  of  the  ball,  and  they  rushed  it 
into  Turkish  territory,  where  they  lost  it 
almost  immediately  on  a  fumble,  and  after 
that  the  Turks  drove  them  rapidly  down 
the  field,  going  around  their  ends  and 
breaking  through  their  centre  very  much 
as  they  pleased. 

The  Greeks  were  outnumbered  three  to 

one,  but  there  are  many  people  who  think 

that  they  would  have  run  away  even  had 

the  number  of  men  on  both  sides  been 

N  193 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

equal.  There  is,  however,  no  way  of  prov- 
ing that  they  would  have  done  this,  while 
it  can  be  proved  that  they  were  outnum- 
bered, and  were  nearly  always,  for  that  rea- 
son, attacked  as  strongly  on  the  flank  as 
in  the  front.  This  fact  should  be  placed 
to  their  credit  side  in  summing  up  their 
strange  conduct.  If  an  eleven  from  Prince- 
ton played  three  elevens  from  Yale  at  the 
same  time,  one  can  see  that  the  game 
would  hardly  be  interesting;  and  to  carry 
out  the  simile  still  further,  and  then  to  drop 
it,  it  was  as  though  this  Princeton  eleven 
was  untrained,  and  had  no  knowledge  of 
tricks  nor  of  team-play,  and  absoh  rely  no 
regard  for  its  captain  as  a  captain.  • 

It  is  a  question  whether  the  chief  trouble 
with  the  Greeks  is  not  that  they  are  too 
democratic  to  make  good  soldiers,  and  too 
independent  to  submit  to  being  led  by  any 
one  from  either  the  council-chamber  or  the 
field.  Perhaps  the  most  perfect  example 
of  pure  democracy  that  exists  anywhere  in 

the  world  is  found  among  the  Greeks  to- 
194 


WITH    THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

day — a  state  of  equality  the  like  of  which 
is  not  to  be  found  with  us  nor  in  the  re- 
public of  France.  Each  Greek  thinks  and 
acts  independently,  and  respects  his  neigh- 
bor's opinion  just  as  long  as  his  neighbor 
agrees  with  him.  The  king  sits  in  cafes 
and  chats  with  his  subjects,  and  they  buy 
the  wine  he  sells  and  the  asparagus  he 
grows,  and  in  return  he  purchases  their 
mutton.  My  courier,  who  was  a  hotel 
runner,  used  to  shake  hands  with  the  Min- 
ister of  War  and  the  Minister  of  the  In- 
terior, and  they  called  him  by  his  first 
name  -_nd  seemed  very  glad  to  meet  him. 
Newsb  »ys  in  Athens  argued  together  as  to 
what  the  concert  of  the  Powers  might  do 
next,  and  private  soldiers  travelled  first- 
class,  and  discussed  the  war  with  their 
officers  during  the  journey  in  the  most 
affable  and  friendly  manner.  The  country 
was  like  a  huge  debating  society.  When 
these  men  were  called  out  to  act  as  sol- 
diers, almost  every  private  had  his  own 
idea  as  to  how  the  war  should  be  con- 
195 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

ducted.  He  had  a  map  of  the  country  in 
his  canvas  bag,  and  as  his  idea  not  infre- 
quently clashed  with  the  ideas  of  his  su- 
periors, there  were  occasional  moments  of 
confusion.  The  fact  that  his  officers  wore 
a  few  more  stars  on  their  collars  than  he 
did,  and  were  called  colonel  or  major,  did 
not  impress  him  in  the  least.  He  regard- 
ed such  distinctions  as  mere  descriptive 
phrases,  intended  to  designate  one  man 
from  another,  just  as  streets  are  named 
differently  in  order  to  distinguish  them, 
and  he  continued  to  act  and  to  think  for 
himself,  as  had  been  his  habit.  On  the 
march  to  Domokos  three  privates  argued 
with  a  major,  who  was  old  enough  to  have 
been  the  father  of  all  of  them,  as  to  whether 
or  not  they  should  leave  the  camp  to  fill 
their  canteens.  The  major  stamped  his 
feet  and  threw  his  hands  above  his  head 
and  expostulated  frantically,  and  they 
soothed  him  and  tried  to  persuade  him  by 
various  arguments  that  he  was  unreason- 
able. They  treated  him  respectfully,  prob- 
196 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

ably  on  account  of  his  years,  but  they 
showed  him  clearly  that  they  considered 
his  premises  erroneous  and  his  position 
illogical. 

It  may  be  argued  that  discipline  is  not 
the  most  essential  quality  in  a  soldier,  and 
that  sometimes  naturally  born  fighting-men, 
with  the  advantage  of  greater  numbers,  can 
defeat  trained  veterans.  But  the  Greeks 
were  neither  born  fighters  nor  trained  sol- 
diers. 

In  Greece  every  soldier  was  a  little  army 
by  himself,  and  when  he  decided  that  it 
was  time  to  turn  and  run,  there  was  no 
familiar  elbow-touch  to  remind  him  that 
he  was  not  alone.  He  was  sure  he  was 
just  as  intelligent  as  any  one  else,  and 
quite  as  able  to  tell  when  the  critical  mo- 
ment had  arrived,  and  so,  naturally,  it  ar- 
rived very  often. 

This  does  not  mean  that  all  the  Greeks 
were  cowards.  That  would  be  an  exceed- 
ingly absurd  thing  to  suggest.     Some  of 

them,  officers  and  men  alike,  showed  ad- 

197 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

mirable  calmness  and  courage,  and  an  ex- 
cellent knowledge  of  what  they  had  to  do. 
But  a  great  many  of  them  knew  little  of 
campaigning,  and  nothing  of  fighting.  A 
boy  in  the  States  who  has  camped  out  for 
one  summer  in  the  Adirondacks  would 
have  known  better  how  to  care  for  the 
Greek  soldiers  in  the  field  than  did  half  of 
their  officers,  who  had  learned  what  they 
knew  of  war  around  the  cafes  in  Athens. 
I  was  with  one  regiment  in  which  almost 
every  man  started  for  the  field  in  perfect- 
ly new  shoes.  The  result  was  that  within 
five  hours  or  sooner  half  of  them  were 
walking  barefoot;  and  when  we  came  to  the 
first  water-tank  these  men  ran  ahead  and 
stuck  their  bleeding  feet  into  the  cool 
water,  and  stamped  it  full  of  mud,  and 
made  it  quite  impossible  for  any  of  their 
comrades  to  fill  their  thirsty  canteens. 
Whenever  we  came  to  water,  instead  of 
holding  the  men  back  and  sending  a  de- 
tail on  ahead  to  guard  the  well,  and  then 
calling  up  a  few  men  from  each  company 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

to  fill  the  canteens  for  the  majority,  there 
was  always  a  stampede  of  this  sort,  and 
the  water  was  wasted  and  much  time  lost. 
These  are  little  things,  but  they  illustrate 
as  well  as  more  important  blunders  how 
ignorantly  the  men  were  handled. 

Too  many  of  the  Greeks,  also,  went 
forth  to  war  with  a  most  exaggerated  idea 
of  the  ease  with  which  a  Turkish  regiment 
can  be  slaughtered  or  made  to  run  away; 
and  when  they  found  that  very  few  Turks 
were  killed,  and  that  none  of  them  ran 
away,  the  surprise  at  the  discovery  quite 
upset  them,  and  they  became  panic-strick- 
en, and  there  was  the  rout  to  Larissa  in 
consequence.  The  rout  to  Larissa  was  as 
actual  a  disaster  for  the  Greeks  as  bad 
ammunition  would  have  been,  or  an  epi- 
demic of  fever  among  the  troops.  We 
can  remember  how  the  fire  in  the  Charity 
Bazaar  in  Paris  affected  the  Parisians  for 
weeks  after  it  had  occurred,  and  made 
them  fearful  of  entering  public  places  of 
amusement,  and  that  the  size  of  audiences 
199 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

on  account  of  it  suffered  all  over  the 
world.  A  similar  terror  lay  back  in  the 
mind  of  each  Greek  soldier.  He  felt  that 
what  one  Greek  had  done  he  might  do. 
He  remembered  how  his  comrades  had 
hurled  their  arms  away  from  them,  how 
they  rode  each  other  down,  and  how  their 
own  artillery  left  a  line  of  dead  and  wound- 
ed Greeks  behind  it  in  its  flight.  Instead 
of  assuring  himself,  in  lack  of  any  evidence 
to  the  contrary,  that  he  was  going  to  stand 
and  fall  in  his  own  footprints,  he  was 
haunted  with  doubts  of  his  courage.  "Am 
I  going  to  run,  as  they  did  at  Larissa  ?"  he 
asked  himself  repeatedly,  and  he  was  con- 
sidering to  what  point  he  could  retreat,  in- 
stead of  observing  the  spot  in  the  land- 
scape to  which  he  would  advance.  He 
kept  his  fingers  feeling  and  probing  at  the 
pulse  of  his  courage,  instead  of  pressing 
them  on  the  hammer  of  his  rifle.  If  it  be 
possible  to  inspire  men  to  deeds  of  bravery 
by  calling  upon  them  to  remember  Mar- 
athon  or  Waterloo    or    the    Alamo,  it  is 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

easy  to  understand  that  the  word  Larissa, 
even  though  it  were  whispered  by  a  camp 
fire  at  midnight,  might  produce  an  oppo- 
site result. 

Many  people  believe  that  a  true  under- 
standing of  the  Greek  campaign  depends 
upon  an  acquaintance  with  the  letters 
which  passed  between  the  King  and  his 
royal  relatives  in  the  courts  of  Europe. 
Without  them  no  one  can  guess  how 
much  the  secret  orders  he  may  or  may 
not  have  received  from  the  Powers  served 
to  influence  the  conduct  of  the  war.  The 
Greek  soldiers,  at  one  time,  at  least,  were 
undoubtedly  of  the  opinion  that  they  had 
been  deceived  and  betrayed  by  the  King  at 
the  demands  of  the  Powers,  and  that  their 
commander-in-chief,  the  Crown-Prince,  had 
received  orders  not  to  give  battle,  but  to 
retreat  continually.  This  feeling  was  as 
strong  among  the  people  in  the  towns  and 
cities  as  it  was  among  the  soldiers  in  the 
fields,  and  portraits  and  photographs  of 
the  royal  family  were  defaced  and  thrown 

201 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

out  into  the  street,  and  in  Athens  a  mob 
led  by  a  Deputy  marched  upon  the  palace 
to  assassinate  the  King,  after  having  helped 
itself  to  arms  and  ammunition  in  the  dif- 
ferent gun-shops.  The  mob  would  proba- 
bly have  done  nothing  to  the  King,  except 
to  frighten  him  a  little,  and  only  desired 
to  make  a  demonstration,  and,  as  a  matter 
of  history,  it  did  not  even  see  him.  For 
when  the  Deputy,  at  the  threshold  of  the 
palace,  demanded  to  be  led  at  once  into 
the  presence  of  his  Majesty,  a  nervous 
aide-de-camp  replied  through  the  half-open 
door  that  his  Majesty  did  not  receive  on 
that  day.  And  the  Deputy,  recognizing 
the  fact  that  it  is  impossible  to  kill  a  man 
if  he  is  not  at  home,  postponed  the  idea  of 
assassination,  and  explained  to  the  blood- 
thirsty mob  that  for  purposes  of  regicide 
it  had  chosen  an  inconvenient  time.  His 
Majesty's  days  for  being  killed  were  prob- 
ably Tuesdays  and  Thursdays,  between 
four  and  seven. 

King  George  was  unfortunate  in  having 

202 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

been  carried  beyond  his  depth  by  a  people 
who  seem  as  easily  moved  as  those  of  a 
Spanish-American  republic,  and  the  worst 
they  say  of  him  is  that  he  is  a  weak  man, 
and  one  who  plays  the  part  of  king  badly. 
Had  he  told  the  people  stoutly  that  they 
were  utterly  unprepared  for  war — a  fact 
which  no  one  knew  better  than  himself — 
they  could  not,  when  they  received  the 
thrashing  which  he  knew  must  come,  have 
blamed  him  for  not  having  warned  them 
like  a  true  friend.  But  he  did  not  do  that. 
He  said,  from  the  balcony  of  the  palace, 
that,  if  war  should  come,  he  himself  would 
lead  them  into  Thessaly ;  and  then,  by  de- 
laying the  declaration  of  war,  he  allowed 
the  Turkish  forces  sufficient  time  in  which 
to  take  up  excellent  positions.  Even  after 
the  war  began  he  made  no  use  whatsoever 
of  the  navy.  As  the  Turks  had  no  navy 
worth  considering,  the  Greek  war-ships  in 
comparison  formed  the  most  important 
part  of  their  war  equipment.  And  had  their 

government,  or  the  Powers,  allowed  them  to 
203 


WITH   THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

do  so,  the  Greek  vessels  might  have  seized 
any  number  of  little  Turkish  islands  and 
garrisoned  them  until  peace  was  declared. 
These  would  have  been  of  great  value  to 
Greece  later,  when  the  terms  of  peace  were 
being  drawn  up  and  indemnities  were  be- 
ing discussed  and  demanded.  But  as  it 
was,  except  for  the  siege  of  Prevesa,  no  one 
heard  of  the  Greek  navy  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  to  its  end. 

It  is  difficult  to  arouse  much  sympathy 
for  the  royal  family.  People  of  unimagina- 
tive minds  already  suggest  that  kings  and 
princes  are  but  relics  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  if  the  kings  and  princes  who  still  sur- 
vive wish  to  give  a  reason  for  their  place  in 
the  twentieth  century  they  should  at  least 
show  themselves  to  be  men.  A  prince  en- 
joys a  very  comfortable  existence ;  he  is 
well  paid  to  be  ornamental  and  tactful,  and 
not  to  interfere  in  affairs  of  state ;  but  oc- 
casionally there  comes  the  time  when  he 
has  to  pay  for  what  has  gone  before  by 

showing  that  he  is  something  apart  from 
204 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

his  subjects — that  he  is  a  prince  among 
men.  In  the  old  days  the  Crown-Prince 
was  not  exempt  from  exposing  himself  in 
the  righting  line.  It  is  true  he  disguised  a 
half-dozen  other  men  in  armor  like  his  own, 
so  that  he  had  a  seventh  of  a  chance  of 
escaping  recognition.  But  there  was  that 
one  chance  out  of  seven  that  he  would  be 
the  one  set  upon  by  the  enemy,  and  that 
he  would  lose  his  kingdom  by  an  arrow  or 
a  blow  from  a  battle-axe.  They  led  their 
subjects  in  those  days  ;  they  did  not,  at 
the  first  sign  of  a  rebuff,  desert  them  on  a 
special  train. 

That,  unfortunately,  was  what  the  Crown- 
Prince  Constantine  did  at  Larissa.  It  was 
only  right  that,  both  as  the  heir-apparent 
and  as  commander-in-chief,  he  should  have 
taken  care  to  preserve  his  life.  But  he 
was  too  careful ;  or,  to  be  quite  fair  to  him, 
it  may  have  been  that  he  was  ill-advised 
by  the  young  men  on  his  staff.  Still,  his 
staff  was  of  his  own  choosing.     His  chief- 

of-staff  was  a  young  man  known  as  a  lead- 

205 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

er  of  cotillions  in  Athens,  and  who,  so  I 
was  repeatedly  informed,  has  refused  to 
fight  nine  duels  in  a  country  where  that 
relic  of  barbarism  is  still  recognized  as  an 
affair  touching  a  man's  honor.  It  was  this 
youth  who  turned  the  Greek  ladies  out  of 
a  railroad  carriage  to  make  room  for  the 
Prince,  and  who  helped  to  fill  it  with  his 
Highness's  linen  and  dressing-cases.  It  is 
pleasant  to  remember  that  one  of  the  demo- 
cratic porters  at  the  railroad  station  was 
so  indignant  at  this  that  he  knocked  the 
aide-de-camp  full  length  on  the  platform. 
One  of  the  Greek  papers,  in  describing  the 
flight  of  the  Crown-Prince,  said,  in  an  edi- 
torial, "We  are  happy  to  state  that  on  the 
arrival  of  the  train  it  was  found  that  not 
one  pocket-handkerchief  belonging  to  the 
Prince  was  lost  —  and  so  the  honor  of 
Greece  is  saved."  Another  paper  said, 
"  Loues  the  peasant  won  the  race  from 
Marathon;  Constantine  the  Prince  won 
the  race  from  Larissa." 

"  It  is  given  to  very  few  men  to  carry  a 

206 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

line  to  a  sinking  ship  or  to  place  a  flag 
upon  the  walls  of  Lucknow,"  and  even  less 
frequently  than  to  other  men  is  such  a 
chance  given  to  a  crown-prince  ;  and  when 
he  fails  to  take  the  chance,  the  conspicu- 
ousness  of  his  position  makes  his  failure 
just  so  much  the  more  terrible.  When 
other  men  make  mistakes  they  can  begin 
a  new  life  under  a  new  flag  and  a  new 
name  at  Buenos  Ayres  or  Callao ;  but  a 
crown-prince  cannot  change  his  name  nor 
his  flag.  Other  men,  who  had  no  more 
lives  to  spare  than  has  his  Royal  Highness, 
remained  in  the  trenches  ;  indeed,  many  of 
them  went  there  out  of  mere  idle  curiosity, 
to  see  a  fight,  to  take  photographs,  or  to 
pick  up  souvenirs  from  the  field.  And 
women,  too,  with  little  scissors  and  lancets 
dangling  like  trinkets  from  their  chate- 
laines, and  red  crosses  on  their  arms,  stood 
where  he  did  not  stand.  If  he  had  only 
walked  out  and  shown  himself  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  spoken  to  the  men  and  ques- 
tioned the  officers,  and  then  ridden  away 
207 


WITH    THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

again,  he  would  have  made  himself  the 
most  popular  man  in  Greece,  and  would 
have  established  his  dynasty  forever  in 
that  country.  He  did  this  at  Pharsala,  but 
then  it  was  too  late ;  every  one  knew  that 
when  the  whole  country  was  calling  him  a 
coward,  he  would  have  to  be  brave  the  sec- 
ond time.  And  so  Constantine  must  spend 
the  rest  of  his  life  explaining  his  conduct, 
when  he  might  have  let  one  brave  act  speak 
for  him.  Nicholas,  the  other  prince,  who 
is  a  lieutenant  in  the  artillery,  was  not 
seen  near  his  battery  during  the  fight  be- 
fore the  retreat  to  Larissa ;  and  as  for  that 
big,  bluff,  rollicking  sea-dog,  George,  who 
is  always  being  photographed  in  naval 
togs,  with  his  cap  cocked  recklessly  over 
one  ear,  he  was  never  heard  of  from  one 
end  of  the  campaign  to  the  other.  It  was 
generally  reported  that  he  had  taken  the 
navy  on  a  voyage  of  exploration  to  the 
north  pole. 

One  night,  on  our  way  to  Volo,  an  Aus- 
tralian correspondent,  who  was  very  much 
208 


WITH   THE   GREEK"  SOLDIERS 

of  a  democrat,  and  anything  but  a  snob, 
was  trying  to  explain  and  to  justify  the 
conduct  of  the  Crown-Prince  at  Larissa. 
But  he  either  found  his  audience  unsym- 
pathetic or  sceptical,  for  at  last  he  laughed 
and  shrugged  his  shoulders :  "  After  all," 
he  said,  "it  should  mean  something  even 
to-day  to  be  a  prince." 

I  first  came  up  with  the  Greek  soldiers 
at  Actium,  on  the  Gulf  of  Arta,  where  the 
artillery  and  the  war-ships  were  shelling 
Prevesa. 

The  Gulf  of  Arta  has  Greece  on  its  one 
bank  and  Turkey  on  the  other,  and  where 
it  empties  into  the  Adriatic,  there  is  Pre- 
vesa on  the  Turkish  side,  and  on  the  Greek 
side  a  solitary  stone  hut.  Below  it  is  the 
island  of  Santa  Maura  and  a  town  of  toy 
houses  as  old  and  black  as  Dutch-ovens 
and  with  overhanging,  red  -  tiled  roofs. 
Santa  Maura  lies  below  Corfu  and  above 
Cephalonia,  and  close  to  neither ;  but  those 
are  the  places  nearest  on  the  map  that  are 
displayed  in  type  large  enough  to  serve  as 

o  209 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

an  address.  From  the  Greek  bank  Pre- 
vesa  was  only  a  wall  of  white  ramparts 
shimmering  in  the  sun,  with  tall  poplars 
and  pencil-like  minarets  pointing  against 
the  blue  sky ;  as  seen  from  the  other  bank 
it  was,  so  they  said,  a  town  filled  with 
hungry  people  and  wounded  soldiers  and 
shattered  cannon.  The  siege  of  Prevesa 
began  on  the  18th  of  April,  and  the  Greek 
officers  on  the  war-ships  continued  the  siege 
until  the  armistice. 

It  was  hard  to  believe  that  war  existed 
in  that  part  of  Greece ;  it  was  difficult  to 
see  how,  with  such  a  background,  men 
could  act  a  part  so  tragic ;  for  the  scene 
was  set  for  a  pastoral  play — perhaps  for  a 
comic  opera.  If  Ireland  is  like  an  emer- 
ald, this  part  of  Greece  is  like  an  opal ;  for 
its  colors  are  as  fierce  and  brilliant  as  are 
those  of  the  opal,  and  are  hidden,  as  they 
are,  with  misty  white  clouds  that  soften 
and  beautify  them.  Against  the  glaring 
blue  sky  are  the  snow-topped  mountains, 
and  below  the  snow -line  green   pasture- 

210 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

lands  glowing  with  great  blocks  of  purple 
furze  and  yellow  buttercups  and  waving 
wheat,  that  changes  when  the  wind  blows, 
and  is  swayed  about  like  waves  of  smoke. 
In  the  high  grass  are  the  light-blue  flow- 
ers of  the  flax,  on  tall,  bending  stalks,  and 
white  flowers  with  hearts  of  yellow,  and 
miles  of  scarlet  poppies,  and  above  them 
tall,  dark  poplars  and  the  grayish -green 
olive-trees.  The  wind  from  the  Adriatic 
and  the  Gulf  of  Arta  sweeps  over  this  burn- 
ing landscape  in  great,  generous  waves, 
cooling  the  hot  air  and  stirring  the  green 
leaves  and  the  high  grass  and  the  bending 
flowers  with  the  strong,  fresh  breath  of  the 
sea. 

White  clouds  throw  shadows  over  the 
whole  as  they  sweep  past  or  rest  on  the 
hills  of  gray  stones,  where  the  yellow  sheep 
look,  from  the  path  below,  like  fat  grains 
of  corn  spilled  on  a  green  billiard  cloth. 
You  may  ride  for  miles  through  this  fair 
country  and  see  no  moving  thing  but  the 
herds  of  silken -haired  goats  and  yellow 

211 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

sheep,  and  the  shepherds  leaning  on  their 
long  rifles,  and  looking,  in  their  tights  and 
sleeveless  cloaks  and  embroidered  jackets, 
like  young  princes  of  the  soil. 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  men  fighting  fierce- 
ly and  with  bloodshot  eyes  in  such  a 
place;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  men 
were  fighting  there,  except  in  a  measured, 
leisurely,  and  well-bred  way.  Over  in 
Thessaly,  for  all  we  know  here,  there  was 
war,  and  all  that  war  entails;  but  by  the 
Arta  the  world  went  on  much  as  it  had  be- 
fore—  the  sheep-bells  tinkled  from  every 
hill-side,  the  soldiers  picnicked  under  the 
shade  of  the  trees,  and  the  bombardment 
of  Prevesa  continued,  with  interruptions 
of  a  day  at  a  time,  and  the  answering 
guns  of  the  Turks  returned  the  compli- 
ment in  an  apologetic  and  desultory  fash- 
ion. Sometimes  it  almost  seemed — so  bad 
was  the  aim  of  the  Turkish  soldiers — 
that  they  were  uncertain  as  to  whether 
or  not  they  had  loaded  their  pieces,  and 
were  pulling  the  lanyards  in  order  to  find 

212 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

out,  being  too  lazy  to  open  the  breech  and 
look. 

I  rode  out  one  day  into  the  camp  at 
Actium,  where  the  solitary  stone  hut 
looked  across  on  Prevesa,  and  Prevesa  on 
the  sea,  and  found  a  regiment  of  artillery 
camping  out  in  the  bushes,  and  two  offi- 
cers and  a  cable  -  operator  bivouacked  in 
the  hut.  A  merry  sergeant  explained  that 
a  correspondent  had  come  all  the  way  from 
America  to  describe  their  victories;  and 
the  regiment  gathered  outside  the  stone 
hut  and  made  comments  and  interrupted 
their  officers  and  contradicted  them,  and 
the  officers  regarded  the  men  kindly  and 
with  the  most  perfect  good  feeling.  It  was 
not  the  sort  of  discipline  that  obtains  in 
other  Continental  armies,  but  it  was  proba- 
bly attributable  to  the  scenery- — no  colonel 
could  be  a  martinet  under  such  a  sky. 
The  cable-operator  played  for  us  on  a  gui- 
tar, and  the  major  sang  second  in  a  rich 
bass  voice,  and  the  colonel  opened  tinned 

cans  of  caviare  and  Danish  butter,  and  the 
213 


WITH   THE    GREEK  SOLDIERS 

army  watched  us  eat  with  serious  and  hos- 
pitable satisfaction.  One  man  brought 
water,  and  another  made  chocolate,  and  a 
stern  corporal  ordered  the  soldiers  away ; 
but  they  knew  he  was  only  jesting,  and, 
after  turning  around,  came  back  again, 
and  bowed  as  one  man,  and  removed  their 
caps  whenever  we  drank  anybody's  health. 
It  reminded  one  of  a  camp  of  volunteers 
off  for  a  week  of  sham-battles  in  the  coun- 
try. When  I  started  on  my  way  again  the 
colonel  detailed  an  escort;  and  when  I 
assured  him  there  was  no  danger,  he  as- 
sured me  in  return  that  he  was  well  aware 
of  that,  but  that  this  was  a  "  guard  for 
honor."  No  man  can  resist  a  "  guard  for 
honor,"  and  so  part  of  the  army  detached 
itself  and  tramped  off,  picking  berries  as  it 
marched,  and  stopping  to  help  a  shepherd 
lad  "  round  up  "  a  stray  goat,  or  to  watch  two 
kids  fighting  for  the  supremacy  of  a  ledge 
of  rock.  It  is  impossible  to  harbor  evil 
thoughts,  even  of  a  Turk  who  is  shelling 

your  camp,  after  you  have  stood  for  a  quar- 
214 


WITH   THE    GREEK   SOLDIERS 

ter  of  an  hour  watching  two  kids  roll  each 
other  off  a  rock.  The  state  of  mind  that 
follows  the  one  destroys  the  possibility  of 
your  entertaining  the  state  of  mind  that  is 
necessary  for  the  other. 

On  the  next  day  a  company  of  the  ioth 
Regiment  of  Infantry  left  Salagora  for  the 
Five  Wells,  where  there  was  to  be  a  great 
battle  that  afternoon.  We  were  on  Turkish 
soil  now,  but  still  the  soldiers  carried  them- 
selves like  boys  off  on  a  holiday,  and,  like 
boys,  enjoyed  it  all  the  more  because  they 
were  trespassing  on  forbidden  ground.  We 
all  may  have  our  own  ideas  as  to  how  an 
armed  force  invades  the  territory  of  the 
enemy — the  alertness  with  which  the  men 
watch  for  an  ambush,  the  pickets  thrown 
out  in  front,  and  the  scowling  faces  of  the 
inhabitants  as  the  victors  and  invaders 
pass.  Perhaps,  to  a  vivid  imagination,  the 
situation  suggests  poisoned  wells  left  be- 
hind as  mementos,  and  spiked  cannon 
abandoned  by  the  road-side,  and  burning 

fields    that  mark   the  wake  of  the  flying 
215 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

enemy.  But  we  saw  none  of  these  things 
on  that  part  of  the  frontier.  It  is  true  the 
inhabitants  of  Salagora  had  abandoned  a 
few  cannon,  and  (which  seemed  to  cause 
more  delight  to  the  Greek  soldiers)  a  post- 
office  full  of  postal-cards,  upon  which  they 
wrote  messages  to  their  friends  at  home, 
with  the  idea  of  posting  them  while  on 
Turkish  soil,  and  so  making  the  Turkish 
government  unwittingly  forward  these 
evidences  of  its  own  humiliation.  The 
men  sang  as  they  marched,  and  marched 
as  they  pleased,  and  the  country  people 
that  we  met  saluted  them  gravely  by 
touching  the  forehead  and  breast.  No 
one  scowled  at  them,  and  they  feared  no 
ambush,  but  jogged  along,  strung  out  over 
a  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  only 
stopping  when  the  Turkish  guns,  which 
were  now  behind  us,  fired  across  the  gulf 
at  a  round  fort  on  a  hill  in  Greece,  and  a 
white  puff  of  smoke  drifted  lazily  after  the 
ball  to  see  where  it  had  gone.     The  field 

birds,  and  the  myriad  of  insect  life,  and  the 
216 


WITH   THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

low  chimes  of  the  sheep-bells  so  filled  the 
hot  air  with  the  sounds  of  peace  that  it 
was  an  effort  to  believe  that  the  heavy 
rumble  and  thick  upheaval  of  the  air  be-' 
hind  us  came  from  hot-throated  cannon. 
One  suspected  rather  that  some  workmen 
were  blasting  in  a  neighboring  quarry,  and 
one  looked  ahead  for  the  man  with  the  red 
flag  who  should  warn  us  of  descending 
stones.  The  soldiers  halted  near  mid-day 
at  a  Greek  church— for  almost  all  of  those 
Turks  who  live  on  the  shores  of  the  Arta 
are  Christians — and  the  old  priest  came 
out  and  kissed  each  of  them  on  the  cheek, 
and  the  conquering  heroes  knelt  and  kiss- 
ed his  hand.  Then  there  was  more  pic- 
nicking, and  the  men  scattered  over  the 
church-yard,  and  some  plucked  and  cooked 
the  chickens  they  had  brought  with  them, 
and  others  slept,  stretched  out  on  the 
tombstones,  and  others  chatted  amicably 
and  volubly  with  the  Turkish  peasants, 
who  had  come,  full  of  curiosity,  from  the 
fields  to  greet  them.  And  after  an  hour 
217 


WITH    THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

we  moved  on  again ;  but  before  we  left  the 
village,  a  Turk  ran  ahead  and  lifted  the 
glass  from  the  front  of  the  picture  of  the 
Saviour  that  hung  under  a  great  tree,  and 
his  friends  the  enemy  broke  ranks,  and, 
with  their  caps  in  their  hands  and  crossing 
themselves,  knelt  and  kissed  the  picture 
that  the  Turk  held  out  to  them,  and  pray- 
ed that  his  brother  Turks  might  not  kill 
them  a  few  hours  later  at  the  Five  Wells. 
But  we  never  saw  the  Five  Wells ;  for 
within  an  hour's  ride  from  it  we  met 
peasants  fleeing  down  the  road,  bent  un- 
der their  household  goods,  and  with  wild 
tales  that  the  battle  had  already  gone  to 
the  Turks,  and  that  all  the  Greek  troops 
were  retreating  on  the  city  of  Arta.  And 
soon  we  came  in  sight  of  long  lines  of 
men  crawling  into  the  valley  from  all 
sides,  and  looking  no  larger  than  tin  sol- 
diers against  the  high  walls  of  the  moun- 
tain. It  was  a  leisurely  withdrawal,  and 
no  one  seemed  to  know  the  reason  for  it. 

A  colonel,  with  his  staff  about  him,  shrug- 

218 


WITH   THE    GREEK    SOLDIERS 

ged  his  shoulders  when  I  rode  up  and 
asked  why  the  battle  we  had  marched  so 
far  to  see  had  been  postponed.  The  com- 
mander-in-chief had  ordered  him  to  return, 
he  said,  for  what  reason  he  knew  not. 
"  But  I  am  coming  back  again,"  he  added, 
cheerfully. 

The  road  to  Arta  was  not  wider  than  a 
two-wheeled  ox-cart,  and  down  it,  for  many 
hours,  and  until  long  after  the  stars  began 
to  show,  poured  and  pressed  an  unbroken 
column  of  artillery  and  cavalry  and  infan- 
try, which  latter  carried  their  guns  as  they 
chose  and  walked  in  no  order.  Men  sat 
by  the  road-side,  panting  in  the  heat,  or 
stretched  sleeping  in  the  wheat-fields,  or 
splashed  in  the  mud  around  some  stone 
well,  where  a  village  maiden  dipped  the 
iron  bucket  again  and  again,  and  filled 
their  canteens,  and  smiled  upon  them  all 
with  equal  favor.  Now  and  then  a  courier 
would  break  through  the  cloud  of  dust, 
taking  outline  gradually,  like  an  impression 

on  a  negative,  his  brass  buttons  showing 
219 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

first  in  the  sunlight,  and  then  the  head  of 
the  horse,  and  then  the  rider,  red -faced 
and  powdered  white,  who  would  scatter 
the  column  into  the  hedges,  and  then  dis- 
appear with  a  rattle  and  scurry  of  hoofs 
into  the  curtain  of  dust.  Commissariat 
wagons  stuck  in  the  ruts,  and  the  commis- 
sariat mule,  that  acts  in  Albania  apparent- 
ly just  as  he  does  on  the  alkali  plains  of 
Texas,  blocked  the  narrow  way,  and  blows 
and  abuse  failed  to  move  him.  To  add  to 
the  confusion,  over  a  thousand  Christian 
peasants  chose  that  inopportune  time  to 
come  into  Arta  for  safety,  and  brought 
their  flocks  with  them.  So  that,  in  the 
last  miles  of  the  road,  sheep  and  goats 
jostled  the  soldiers  for  the  right  of  way, 
which  they  shared  with  little  donkeys,  carry- 
ing rolls  of  tents  and  bedding,  and  women, 
who  in  this  country  come  next  after  the 
four-legged  beasts  of  burden,  staggering 
under  great  iron  pots  and  iron-bound  boxes. 
Little  children  carried  children  nearly  as 

big  as  themselves,  and  others  lay  tossed 

220 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

on  the  packs  of  bedding,  and  others  slept 
lashed  to  their  mothers'  shoulders  in  queer, 
three-cornered, trough-like  cradles.  The  men 
and  boys,  costumed  like  grand-opera  brig- 
ands, dashed  shrieking  in  and  out  of  the 
mob,  chasing  back  the  goats  and  sheep 
that  had  made  a  break  for  liberty,  and  the 
soldiers  helped  them,  charging  the  sheep 
with  their  bayonets,  and  laughing  and 
shouting  as  though  it  were  some  kind  of 
game.  Over  all  the  dust  rose  and  hung 
in  choking  clouds,  through  which  the  sun 
cast  a  yellow  glare.  And  so  for  many  hours 
the  two  armies  of  peasants  and  of  soldiers 
panted  and  pushed  and  struggled  towards 
the  high  narrow  bridge  that  guards  the 
way  to  Arta. 

It  is  such  a  bridge  as  Horatius  with  two 
others  might  have  held  against  an  army ; 
it  rises  like  a  rainbow  in  the  air,  a  great 
stone  arch  as  steep  as  an  inverted  V.  It 
is  made  of  white  stone,  with  high  parapets. 
Into  this  narrow  gorge  cannon  and  ammu- 
nition wagons,  goats  and  sheep,  little  girls 


WITH   THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

carrying  other  little  girls,  mules  loaded 
with  muskets,  mules  hidden  under  packs 
of  green  fodder,  officers  struggling  with 
terrified  horses  that  threatened  to  leap 
with  them  over  the  parapet  into  the  river 
below,  peasants  tugging  at  long  strings  of 
ponies,  women  bent  to  the  earth  under 
pans  and  kettles,  and  company  after  com- 
pany of  weary  and  sweating  soldiers  pushed 
and  struggled  for  hours  together,  while  far 
out  on  either  side  hordes  of  the  weaker 
brothers,  who,  leaving  it  to  others  to  de- 
monstrate the  survival  of  the  fittest,  had 
dropped  by  the  way -side,  lay  spread  out 
like  a  great  fan,  but  still  from  time  to  time 
feeding  the  bridge,  until  it  stretched  above 
the  river  like  a  human  chain  of  men  and 
beasts  linked  together  in  inextricable  con- 
fusion. 

Of  course  it  was  a  feast  day  when  this 
happened.  It  always  is  a  feast  day  of  the 
Greek  Church  when  such  an  event  can  be 
arranged  to  particularly  inconvenience  the 
greatest  number  of  people.      There  were 


WITH  THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

three  in  succession  at  Moscow  when  the 
Czar  was  crowned,  and  for  that  time  no 
bank  was  opened,  and  every  one  borrowed 
from  every  one  else  or  went  hungry.  And 
no  shop  was  opened  in  Arta  that  night 
when  the  army  retreated  upon  it,  and  offi- 
cers and  men  packed  the  streets  until  day- 
light, beating  at  the  closed  shutters  and 
offering  their  last  drachma  for  a  slice  of 
bread,  while  the  shepherds  camped  out 
with  their  flocks  on  the  sidewalks  and  in 
the  public  squares. 

But  the  wine -shops  were  open,  and  in 
and  out  of  them  the  soldiers  and  their  offi- 
cers tramped  and  pushed,  hungry  and  foot- 
sore and  thirsty ;  and  though  no  "  lights 
out "  sounded  that  night,  or  if  it  did  no 
one  heard  it,  there  was  not  a  drunken  man, 
not  a  quarrelsome  man,  in  that  great  mob 
that  overwhelmed  and  swamped  the  city. 

Late  at  night,  when   I  turned  in  on  a 

floor  that  I  shared  with  three  others,  the 

men  were  still  laughing  and  singing  in  the 

streets,  and  greeting  old  friends  like  lost 
223 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

brothers,  and  utterly  unconscious  of  the 
shadow  of  war  that  hung  over  them,  and 
of  the  fact  that  the  Turks  were  already  far 
advanced  on  Greek  soil,  and  were  threat- 
ening Pharsala,  Velestinos,  and  Volo. 

The  Turks  had  made  three  attacks  on 
Velestinos  on  three  different  days,  and  had 
been  repulsed  each  time.  A  week  later, 
on  the  4th  of  May,  they  came  back  again, 
to  the  number  of  ten  thousand,  and  brought 
four  batteries  with  them,  and  the  fighting 
continued  for  two  days  more.  This  was 
called  the  second  battle  of  Velestinos.  In 
the  afternoon  of  the  5th  the  Crown-Prince 
withdrew  from  Pharsala  to  take  up  a 
stronger  position  at  Domokos,  and  the 
Greeks  under  General  Smolenski,  the  mili- 
tary hero  of  the  campaign,  were  forced  to 
retreat,  and  the  Turks  came  in,  and,  ac- 
cording to  their  quaint  custom,  burned  the 
village  and  marched  on  to  Volo.  John 
Bass,  an  American  correspondent,  and 
myself  were  keeping  house  in  the  village, 

in  the  home  of  the  mayor.     He  had  fled 
224 


WITH    THE    GREEK    SOLDIERS 

from  the  town,  as  had  nearly  all  of  the  vil- 
lagers ;  and  as  we  liked  the  appearance  of 
his  house,  I  gave  Bass  a  leg  up  over  the 
wall  around  his  garden,  and  Bass  opened 
the  gate,  and  we  climbed  in  through  his 
front  window.  It  was  like  the  invasion  of 
the  home  of  the  Dusantes  by  Mrs.  Leeks 
and  Mrs.  Aleshine,  and,  like  them,  we  were 
constantly  making  discoveries  of  fresh 
treasure-trove.  Sometimes  it  was  in  the 
form  of  a  cake  of  soap  or  a  tin  of  coffee, 
and  once  it  was  the  mayor's  fluted  petti- 
coats, which  we  tried  on,  and  found  very 
heavy.  We  could  not  discover  what  he 
did  for  pockets.  All  of  these  things,  and 
the  house  itself,  were  burned  to  ashes,  we 
were  told,  a  few  hours  after  we  retreated, 
and  we  feel  less  troubled  now  at  having 
made  such  free  use  of  them  than  we  did 
at  the  time  of  our  occupation. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  we  were 
awakened  by  the  firing  of  cannon  from  a 
hill  just  over  our  heads,  and  we  both  got 

up  and  shook  hands  in  the  middle  of  the 

p  225 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

room.  There  was  to  be  a  battle,  and  we 
were  the  only  correspondents  on  the  spot. 
As  I  represented  the  London  Times,  Bass 
was  the  only  representative  of  an  Amer- 
ican newspaper  who  saw  this  battle  from 
its  beginning  to  its  end. 

We  found   all  the   hills   to   the  left    of 
the  town  topped  with  long  lines  of  men 
crouching  in  little  trenches.     There  were 
four  rows  of  hills.     If  you  had  measured 
the  distance  from  one  hill-top  to  the  next, 
they  would  have  been  from  one  hundred 
to  three  hundred  yards  distant  from  one 
another.     In  between  the  hills  were  gul- 
lies,   or    little    valleys,    and    the    beds    of 
streams  that  had  dried  up  in  the  hot  sun. 
These  valleys  were  filled  with  high  grass 
that  waved  about  in  the  breeze   and  was 
occasionally  torn  up  and  tossed  in  the  air 
by  a  shell.     The   position    of   the  Greek 
forces  was  very  simple.     On  the  top  of 
each  hill  was  a  trench  two  or  three  feet 
deep  and  some  hundred  yards  long.     The 
earth  that  had  been  scooped  out  to  make 
226 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

the  trench  was  packed  on  the  edge  facing 
the  enemy,  and  on  the  top  of  that  some  of 
the  men  had  piled  stones,  through  which 
they  poked  their  rifles.  When  a  shell 
struck  the  ridge  it  would  sometimes  scatter 
these  stones  in  among  the  men,  and  they 
did  quite  as  much  damage  as  the  shells. 
Back  of  these  trenches,  and  down  that  side 
of  the  hill  which  was  farther  from  the  en- 
emy, were  the  reserves,  who  sprawled  at 
length  in  the  long  grass,  and  smoked  and 
talked  and  watched  the  shells  dropping 
into  the  gully  at  their  feet. 

The  battle,  which  lasted  two  days,  opened 
in  a  sudden  and  terrific  storm  of  hail.  But 
the  storm  passed  as  quickly  as  it  came, 
leaving  the  trenches  running  with  water, 
like  the  gutters  of  a  city  street  after  a 
spring  shower;  and  the  men  soon  sopped 
them  up  with  their  overcoats  and  blank- 
ets, and  in  half  an  hour  the  sun  had  dried 
the  wet  uniforms,  and  the  field-birds  had 
begun  to  chirp  again,  and  the  grass  was 

warm  and  fragrant.     The  sun  was  terribly 
227 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

hot.  There  was  no  other  day  during  that 
entire  brief  campaign  when  its  glare  was  so 
intense  or  the  heat  so  suffocating.  The 
men  curled  up  in  the  trenches,  with  their 
heads  pressed  against  the  damp  earth,  pant- 
ing and  breathing  heavily,  and  the  heat- 
waves danced  and  quivered  about  them, 
making  the  plain  below  flicker  like  a  pict- 
ure in  a  cinematograph. 

From  time  to  time  an  officer  would  rise 
and  peer  down  into  the  great  plain,  shading 
his  eyes  with  his  hands,  and  shout  some- 
thing at  them,  and  they  would  turn  quickly 
in  the  trench  and  rise  on  one  knee.  And 
at  the  shout  that  followed  they  would  fire 
four  or  five  rounds  rapidly  and  evenly,  and 
then,  at  a  sound  from  the  officer's  whistle, 
would  drop  back  again  and  pick  up  the 
cigarettes  they  had  placed  in  the  grass 
and  begin  leisurely  to  swab  out  their  rifles 
with  a  piece  of  dirty  rag  on  a  cleaning- 
rod.  Down  in  the  plain  below  there  was 
apparently   nothing  at  which   they  could 

shoot   except   the   great   shadows   of   the 

228 


WITH  THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

clouds  drifting  across  the  vast  checker- 
board of  green  and  yellow  fields,  and  dis- 
appearing finally  between  the  mountain- 
passes  beyond.  In  some  places  there  were 
square  dark  patches  that  might  have  been 
bushes,  and  nearer  to  us  than  these  were 
long  lines  of  fresh  earth,  from  which  steam 
seemed  to  be  escaping  in  little  wisps. 
What  impressed  us  most  of  what  we  could 
see  of  the  battle  then  was  the  remarkable 
number  of  cartridges  the  Greek  soldiers 
wasted  in  firing  into  space,  and  the  fact 
that  they  had  begun  to  fire  at  such  long 
range  that,  in  order  to  get  the  elevation, 
they  had  placed  the  rifle -butt  under  the 
armpit  instead  of  against  the  shoulder. 
Their  sights  were  at  the  top  notch.  The 
cartridges  reminded  one  of  corn-cobs  jump- 
ing out  of  a  corn-sheller,  and  it  was  inter- 
esting when  the  bolts  were  shot  back  to 
see  a  hundred  of  them  pop  up  into  the  air 
at  the  same  time,  flashing  in  the  sun  as 
though  they  were  glad  to  have  done  their 

work  and  to  get  out  again.     They  rolled 

229 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

by  the  dozens  underfoot,  and  twinkled  in 
the  grass,  and  when  one  shifted  his  posi- 
tion in  the  narrow  trench,  or  stretched  his 
cramped  legs,  they  tinkled  musically.  It 
was  like  wading  in  a  gutter  filled  with 
thimbles. 

Then  there  began  a  concert  which  came 
from  just  overhead — a  concert  of  jarring 
sounds  and  little  whispers.  The  "shriek- 
ing shrapnel,"  of  which  one  reads  in  the 
description  of  every  battle,  did  not  sound 
so  much  like  a  shriek  as  it  did  like  the 
jarring  sound  of  telegraph  wires  when 
some  one  strikes  the  pole  from  which 
they  hang,  and  when  they  came  very  close 
the  noise  was  like  the  rushing  sound  that 
rises  between  two  railroad  trains  when 
they  pass  each  other  in  opposite  direc- 
tions and  at  great  speed.  After  a  few 
hours  we  learned  by  observation  that  when 
a  shell  sang  overhead  it  had  already  struck 
somewhere  else,  which  was  comforting, 
and  which   was    explained,  of  course,  by 

the  fact  that  the  speed  of  the  shell  is  so 

230 


WITH   THE    GREEK   SOLDIERS 

much  greater  than  the  rate  at  which  sound 
travels.  The  bullets  were  much  more  dis- 
turbing; they  seemed  to  be  less  open  in 
their  warfare,  and  to  steal  up  and  sneak 
by,  leaving  no  sign,  and  only  whispering  as 
they  passed.  They  moved  under  a  cloak 
of  invisibility,  and  made  one  feel  as  though 
he  were  the  blind  man  in  a  game  of  blind- 
man's-buff,  where  every  one  tapped  him 
in  passing,  leaving  him  puzzled  and  igno- 
rant as  to  whither  they  had  gone  and 
from  what  point  they  would  come  next. 
The  bullets  sounded  like  rustling  silk,  or 
like  humming-birds  on  a  warm  summer's 
day,  or  like  the  wind  as  it  is  imitated  on 
the  stage  of  a  theatre.  Any  one  who  has 
stood  behind  the  scenes  when  a  storm  is 
progressing  on  the  stage,  knows  the  little 
wheel  wound  with  silk  that  brushes  against 
another  piece  of  silk,  and  which  produces 
the  whistling  effect  of  the  wind.  At  Vel- 
estinos,  when  the  firing  was  very  heavy, 
it  was  exactly  as  though  some  one  were 

turning  one  of  these   silk  wheels,  and  so 

231 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

rapidly  as  to  make  the  whistling  contin- 
uous. 

When  this  concert  opened,  the  officers 
shouted  out  new  orders,  and  each  of  the 
men  shoved  his  sight  nearer  to  the  barrel, 
and  when  he  fired  again,  rubbed  the  butt 
of  his  gun  snugly  against  his  shoulder. 
The  huge  green  blotches  on  the  plain  had 
turned  blue,  and  now  we  could  distinguish 
that  they  moved,  and  that  they  were  mov- 
ing steadily  forward.  Then  they  would 
cease  to  move,  and  a  little  later  would  be 
hidden  behind  great  puffs  of  white  smoke, 
which  were  followed  by  a  flash  of  flame; 
and  still  later  there  would  come  a  dull  re- 
port. At  the  same  instant  something  would 
hurl  itself  jarring  through  the  air  above 
our  heads,  and  by  turning  on  one  elbow 
we  could  see  a  sudden  upheaval  in  the  sunny 
landscape  behind  us,  a  spurt  of  earth  and 
stones  like  a  miniature  geyser,  which  was 
filled  with  broken  branches  and  tufts  of 
grass  and  pieces  of  rock.     As  the  Turkish 

aim  grew  better  these  volcanoes  appeared 
232 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

higher  up  the  hill,  creeping  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  rampart  of  fresh  earth  on  the 
second  trench  until  the  shells  hammered 
it  at  last  again  and  again,  sweeping  it 
away  and  cutting  great  gashes  in  it, 
through  which  we  saw  the  figures  of  men 
caught  up  and  hurled  to  one  side,  and 
others  flinging  themselves  face  downward 
as  though  they  were  diving  into  water; 
and  at  the  same  instant  in  our  own  trench 
the  men  would  gasp  as  though  they  had 
been  struck  too,  and  then  becoming  con- 
scious of  having  done  this  would  turn  and 
smile  sheepishly  at  each  other,  and  crawl 
closer  into  the  burrows  they  had  made  in 
the  earth. 

From  where  we  sat  on  the  edge  of  the 
trench,  with  our  feet  among  the  cartridges, 
we  could,  by  leaning  forward,  look  over 
the  piled-up  earth  into  the  the  plain  below, 
and  soon,  without  any  aid  from  field-glass- 
es, we  saw  the  blocks  of  blue  break  up 
into  groups  of  men.  These  men  came 
across  the  ploughed  fields  in  long,  widely 
233 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

opened  lines,  walking  easily  and  leisurely, 
as  though  they  were  playing  golf  or  sow- 
ing seed  in  the  furrows.  The  Greek  rifles 
crackled  and  flashed  at  the  lines,  but  the 
men  below  came  on  quite  steadily,  picking 
their  way  over  the  furrows  and  appearing 
utterly  unconscious  of  the  seven  thousand 
rifles  that  were  calling  on  them  to  halt. 
They  were  advancing  directly  towards  a 
little  sugar-loaf  hill,  on  the  top  of  which 
was  a  mountain  battery  perched  like  a 
tiara  on  a  woman's  head.  It  was  throw- 
ing one  shell  after  another  in  the  very  path 
of  the  men  below,  but  the  Turks  still  con- 
tinued to  pick  their  way  across  the  field, 
without  showing  any  regard  for  the  moun- 
tain battery.  It  was  worse  than  threaten- 
ing; it  seemed  almost  as  though  they 
meant  to  insult  us.  If  they  had  come  up 
on  a  run  they  would  not  have  appeared  so 
contemptuous,  for  it  would  have  looked 
then  as  though  they  were  trying  to  escape 
the  Greek  fire,  or  that  they  were  at  least 
interested  in  what  was  going  forward. 
234 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

But  the  steady  advance  of  so  many  men, 
each  plodding  along  by  himself,  with  his 
head  bowed  and  his  gun  on  his  shoulder, 
was  aggravating  to  a  degree. 

There  was  a  little  village  at  the  foot  of 
the  hill.  It  was  so  small  that  no  one  had 
considered  it.  It  was  more  like  a  collec- 
tion of  stables  gathered  round  a  residence 
than  a  town,  and  there  was  a  wall  com- 
pletely encircling  it,  with  a  gate  in  the 
wall  that  faced  us.  Suddenly  the  doors 
of  this  gate  were  burst  open  from  the  in- 
side, and  a  man  in  a  fez  ran  through  them, 
followed  by  many  more.  The  first  man 
was  waving  a  sword,  and  a  peasant  in 
petticoats  ran  at  his  side  and  pointed  up 
with  his  hand  at  our  trench.  Until  that 
moment  the  battle  had  lacked  all  human 
interest;  we  might  have  been  watching  a 
fight  against  the  stars  or  the  man  in  the 
moon,  and,  in  spite  of  the  noise  and  clat- 
ter of  the  Greek  rifles,  and  the  ghostlike 
whispers  and  the  rushing  sounds  in  the 
air,  there  was  nothing  to  remind  us  of  «any 
235 


WITH   THE    GREEK   SOLDIERS 

other  battle  of  which  we  had  heard  or 
read.  But  we  had  seen  pictures  of  officers 
waving  swords,  and  we  knew  that  the  fez 
was  the  sign  of  the  Turk — of  the  enemy — 
of  the  men  who  were  invading  Thessaly, 
who  were  at  that  moment  planning  to 
come  up  a  steep  hill  on  which  we  hap- 
pened to  be  sitting  and  attack  the  people 
on  top  of  it.  And  the  spectacle  at  once 
became  comprehensible,  and  took  on  the 
human  interest  it  had  lacked.  The  men 
seemed  to  feel  this,  for  they  sprang  up 
and  began  cheering  and  shouting,  and 
fired  in  an  upright  position,  and  by  so  do- 
ing exposed  themselves  at  full  length  to 
the  fire  from  the  men  below.  The  Turks 
in  front  of  the  village  ran  back  into  it 
again,  and  those  in  the  fields  beyond  turn- 
ed and  began  to  move  away,  but  in  that 
same  plodding,  aggravating  fashion.  They 
moved  so  leisurely  that  there  was  a  pause 
in  the  noise  along  the  line,  while  the  men 
watched  them  to  make  sure  that  they  were 

really  retreating.      And  then  there  was  a 
236 


WITH   THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

long  cheer,  after  which  they  all  sat  down, 
breathing  deeply,  and  wiping  the  sweat  and 
dust  across  their  faces,  and  took  long  pulls 
at  their  canteens. 

The  different  trenches  were  not  all  en- 
gaged at  the  same  time.  They  acted  ac- 
cording to  the  individual  judgment  of 
their  commanding  officer,  but  always  for 
the  general  good.  Sometimes  the  fire  of 
the  enemy  would  be  directed  on  one  par- 
ticular trench,  and  it  would  be  impossible 
for  the  men  in  that  trench  to  rise  and  re- 
ply without  having  their  heads  carried 
away;  so  they  would  lie  hidden,  and  the 
men  in  the  trenches  flanking  them  would 
act  in  their  behalf,  and  rake  the  enemy 
from  the  front  and  from  every  side,  un- 
til the  fire  on  that  trench  was  silenced, 
or  turned  upon  some  other  point.  The 
trenches  stretched  for  over  half  a  mile  in 
a  semicircle,  and  the  little  hills  over  which 
they  ran  lay  at  so  many  different  angles, 
and  rose  to  such  different  heights,  that 
sometimes  the  men  in  one  trench  fired  di- 
237 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

rectly  over  the  heads  of  their  own  men. 
From  many  trenches  in  the  first  line  it 
was  impossible  to  see  any  of  the  Greek 
soldiers  except  those  immediately  beside 
you.  If  you  looked  back  or  beyond  on 
either  hand  there  was  nothing  to  be  seen 
but  high  hills  topped  with  fresh  earth,  and 
the  waving  yellow  grass,  and  the  glaring 
blue  sky. 

General  Smolenski  directed  the  Greeks 
from  the  plain  to  the  far  right  of  the  town; 
and  his  presence  there,  although  none  of 
the  men  saw  him  nor  heard  of  him  direct- 
ly throughout  the  entire  day,  was  more 
potent  for  good  than  would  have  been  the 
presence  of  five  thousand  other  men  held  in 
reserve.  He  was  a  mile  or  two  miles  away 
from  the  trenches,  but  the  fact  that  he  was 
there,  and  that  it  was  Smolenski  who  was 
giving  the  orders,  was  enough.  Few  had 
ever  seen  Smolenski,  but  his  name  was 
sufficient;  it  was  as  effective  as  is  Mr. 
Bowen's  name  on  a  Bank  of  England  note. 

It  gave   one  a  pleasant  feeling  to  know 

238 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

that  he  was  somewhere  within  call ;  you 
felt  there  would  be  no  "routs"  nor  stam- 
pedes while  he  was  there.  And  so  for 
two  days  those  seven  thousand  men  lay 
in  the  trenches,  repulsing  attack  after  at- 
tack of  the  Turkish  troops,  suffocated  with 
the  heat  and  chilled  with  sudden  showers, 
and  swept  unceasingly  by  shells  and  bullets 
— partly  because  they  happened  to  be  good 
men  and  brave  men,  but  largely  because 
they  knew  that  somewhere  behind  them 
a  stout,  bull-necked  soldier  was  sitting  on 
a  camp-stool,  watching  them  through  a 
pair  of  field-glasses. 

Towards  mid-day  you  would  see  a  man 
leave  the  trench  with  a  comrade's  arm 
around  him,  and  start  on  the  long  walk  to 
the  town  where  the  hospital  corps  were 
waiting  for  him.  These  men  did  not  wear 
their  wounds  with  either  pride  or  bragga- 
docio, but  regarded  the  wet  sleeves  and 
shapeless  arms  in  a  sort  of  wondering  sur- 
prise. There  was  much  more  of  surprise 
than  of  pain  in  their  faces,  and  they  seemed 
239 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

to  be  puzzling  as  to  what  they  had  done 
in  the  past  to  deserve  such  a  punishment. 
Other  men  were  carried  out  of  the  trench 
and  laid  on  their  backs  on  the  high  grass, 
staring  up  drunkenly  at  the  glaring  sun, 
and  with  their  limbs  fallen' into  unfamiliar 
poses.  They  lay  so  still,  and  they  were  so 
utterly  oblivious  of  the  roar  and  rattle  and 
the  anxious  energy  around  them  that  one 
grew  rather  afraid  of  them  and  of  their  su- 
periority to  their  surroundings.  The  sun 
beat  on  them,  and  the  insects  in  the  grass 
waving  above  them  buzzed  and  hummed, 
or  burrowed  in  the  warm  moist  earth  upon 
which  they  lay;  over  their  heads  the  invis- 
ible carriers  of  death  jarred  the  air  with 
shrill  crescendoes,  and  near  them  a  com- 
rade sat  hacking  with  his  bayonet  at  a 
lump  of  hard  bread.  He  sprawled  con- 
tentedly in  the  hot  sun,  with  humped 
shoulders  and  legs  far  apart,  and  with  his 
cap  tipped  far  over  his  eyes.  Every  now 
and  again  he  would  pause,  with  a  piece  of 

cheese  balanced  on  the  end  of  his  knife- 
240 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

blade,  and  look  at  the  twisted  figures  by 
him  on  the  grass,  or  he  would  dodge  in- 
voluntarily as  a  shell  swung  low  above  his 
head,  and  smile  nervously  at  the  still  forms 
on  either  side  of  him  that  had  not  moved. 
Then  he  brushed  the  crumbs  from  his 
jacket  and  took  a  drink  out  of  his  hot  can- 
teen, and  looking  again  at  the  sleeping  fig- 
ures pressing  down  the  long  grass  beside 
him,  crawled  back  on  his  hands  and  knees 
to  the  trench  and  picked  up  his  waiting 
rifle. 

The  dead  gave  dignity  to  what  the  other 
men  were  doing,  and  made  it  noble,  and, 
from  another  point  of  view,  quite  senseless. 
For  their  dying  had  proved  nothing.  Men 
who  could  have  been  much  better  spared 
than  they,  were  still  alive  in  the  trenches, 
and  for  no  reason  but  through  mere  dumb 
chance.  There  was  no  selection  of  the 
unfittest;  it  seemed  to  be  ruled  by  unrea- 
soning luck.  A  certain  number  of  shells 
and  bullets  passed  through  a  certain  area 
of    space,    and    men    of    different    bulks 

Q  241 


WITH   THE    GREEK   SOLDIERS 

blocked  that  space  in  different  places.  If 
a  man  happened  to  be  standing  in  the  line 
of  a  bullet  he  was  killed  and  passed  into 
eternity,  leaving  a  wife  and  children,  per- 
haps, to  mourn  him.  "  Father  died,"  these 
children  will  say,  "  doing  his  duty."  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  father  died  because  he  hap- 
pened to  stand  up  at  the  wrong  moment, 
or  because  he  turned  to  ask  the  man  on 
his  right  for  a  match,  instead  of  leaning 
towards  the  left,  and  he  projected  his  bulk 
of  two  hundred  pounds  where  a  bullet,  fired 
by  a  man  who  did  not  know  him  and  who 
had  not  aimed  at  him,  happened  to  want 
the  right  of  way.  One  of  the  two  had  to 
give  it,  and  as  the  bullet  would  not,  the 
soldier  had  his  heart  torn  out.  The  man 
who  sat  next  to  me  happened  to  move  to 
fill  his  cartridge-box  just  as  the  bullet  that 
wanted  the  space  he  had  occupied  passed 
over  his  bent  shoulder;  and  so  he  was 
not  killed,  but  will  live  for  sixty  years, 
perhaps,  and  will  do  much  good  or  much 

evil.     Another   man   in   the  same   trench 
242 


WITH    THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

sat  up  to  clean  out  his  rifle,  and  had  his 
arm  in  the  air  driving  the  cleaning-rod 
down  the  barrel,  when  a  bullet  passed 
through  his  lungs,  and  the  gun  fell  across 
his  face,  with  the  rod  sticking  in  it,  and  he 
pitched  forward  on  his  shoulder  quite  dead. 
If  he  had  not  cleaned  his  gun  at  that  mo- 
ment he  would  probably  be  alive  in  Athens 
now,  sitting  in  front  of  a  cafe  and  fighting 
the  war  over  again.  Viewed  from  that 
point,  and  leaving  out  the  fact  that  God 
ordered  it  all,  the  fortunes  of  the  game 
of  war  seemed  as  capricious  as  matching 
pennies,  and  as  impersonal  as  the  wheel  at 
Monte  Carlo.  In  it  the  brave  man  did  not 
win  because  he  was  brave,  but  because  he 
was  lucky.  A  fool  and  a  philosopher  are 
equal  at  a  game  of  dice.  And  these  men 
who  threw  dice  with  death  were  interest- 
ing to  watch,  because,  though  they  gam- 
bled for  so  great  a  stake,  they  did  so 
unconcernedly  and  without  flinching,  and 
without  apparently  appreciating  the  seri- 
ousness of  the  game. 

243 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLMERS 

There  was  a  red -headed,  freckled  peas- 
ant boy,  in  dirty  petticoats,  who  guided 
Bass  and  myself  to  the  trenches.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  peasants  who  had  not  run 
away,  and  as  he  had  driven  sheep  over 
every  foot  of  the  hills,  he  elected  to  guide 
the  soldiers  through  those  places  where 
they  were  best  protected  from  the  bullets 
of  the  enemy.  He  did  this  all  day,  and 
was  always,  whether  coming  or  going,  un- 
der a  heavy  fire;  but  he  enjoyed  that  fact, 
and  he  seemed  to  regard  the  battle  only  as 
a  delightful  change  in  the  quiet  routine  of 
his  life,  as  one  of  our  own  country  boys  at 
home  would  regard  the  coming  of  the  spring 
circus  or  the  burning  of  a  neighbor's  barn. 
He  ran  dancing  ahead  of  us,  pointing  to 
where  a  ledge  of  rock  offered  a  natural 
shelter,  or  showing  us  a  steep  gully  where 
the  bullets  could  not  fall.  When  they  came 
very  near  him  he  would  jump  high  in  the 
air,  not  because  he  was  startled,  but  out  of 
pure  animal  joy  in  the  excitement  of  it, 

and  he  would  frown  importantly  and  shake 
244 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

his  red  curls  at  us,  as  though  to  say :  "  I 
told  you  to  be  careful.  Now,  you  see. 
Don't  let  that  happen  again."  We  met 
him  many  times  during  the  two  days,  es- 
corting different  companies  of  soldiers 
from  one  point  to  another,  as  though  they 
were  visitors  to  his  estate.  When  a  shell 
broke,  he  would  pick  up  a  piece  and  pre- 
sent it  to  the  officer  in  charge,  as  though 
it  were  a  flower  he  had  plucked  from  his 
own  garden,  and  which  he  wanted  his 
guest  to  carry  away  with  him  as  a  souve- 
nir of  his  visit.  Some  one  asked  the  boy 
if  his  father  and  mother  knew  where  he 
was,  and  he  replied,  with  amusement,  that 
they  had  run  away  and  deserted  him,  and 
that  he  had  remained  because  he  wished 
to  see  what  a  Turkish  army  looked  like. 
He  was  a  much  more  plucky  boy  than 
the  overrated  Casabianca,  who  may  have 
stood  on  the  burning  deck  whence  all 
but  him  had  fled  because  he  could  not 
swim,  and  because  it  was  with  him  a 
choice  of  being  either  burned  or  drowned. 
245 


WITH    THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

This  boy  stuck  to  the  burning  deck  when 
it  was  possible  for  him  at  any  time  to 
have  walked  away  and  left  it  burning. 
But  he  stayed  on  because  he  was  amused, 
and  because  he  was  able  to  help  the  sol- 
diers from  the  city  in  safety  across  his 
native  heath.  I  wrote  something  about 
him  at  the  time,  but  I  do  not  apologize  for 
telling  about  him  again,  because  he  was 
the  best  part  of  the  show,  and  one  of  the 
bravest  Greeks  on  the  field.  He  will  grow 
up  to  be  something  fine,  no  doubt,  and  his 
spirit  will  rebel  against  having  to  spend 
his  life  watching  his  father's  sheep.  He 
may  even  win  the  race  from  Marathon. 
It  would  be  an  excellent  thing  for  Greece 
if  some  one  discovered  that,  in  spite  of  the 
twenty  years  discrepancy  in  their  ages,  he 
and  the  Crown  -  Prince  had  been  changed 
at  birth. 

Another  Greek  who  was  a  most  inter- 
esting figure  to  us  was  a  Lieutenant  Am- 
broise  Frantzis.     He  was  in  command  of 

the   mountain   battery   on   the  flat,  round 
246 


WITH   THE    GREEK   SOLDIERS 

top  of  the  high  hill.  On  account  of  its 
height  the  place  seemed  much  nearer  to 
the  sun  than  any  other  part  of  the  world, 
and  the  heat  there  was  three  times  as  fierce 
as  in  the  trenches  below.  When  you  had 
climbed  to  the  top  of  this  hill  it  was  like 
standing  on  a  roof-garden,  or  as  though 
you  were  watching  a  naval  battle  from  the 
mast-head  of  one  of  the  battle-ships.  The 
top  of  the  hill  was  not  unlike  an  immense 
circus  ring  in  appearance.  The  piled-up 
earth  around  its  circular  edge  gave  that 
impression,  and  the  glaring  yellow  wheat 
that  was  tramped  into  the  glaring  yellow 
soil,  and  the  blue  ammunition-boxes  scat- 
tered about,  helped  out  the  idea.  It  was 
an  exceedingly  busy  place,  and  the  smoke 
drifted  across  it  continually,  hiding  us  from 
one  another  in  a  curtain  of  flying  yellow 
dust,  while  over  our  heads  the  Turkish 
shells  raced  after  each  other  so  rapidly 
that  they  beat  out  the  air  like  the  branches 
of  a  tree  in  a  storm.     On  account  of  its 

height,  and  the  glaring  heat,  and  the  shells 

247 


WITH   THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

passing,  and  the  Greek  guns  going  off 
and  then  turning  somersaults,  it  was  not  a 
place  suited  for  meditation  ;  but  Ambroise 
Frantzis  meditated  there  as  though  he  were 
in  his  own  study.  He  was  a  very  young 
man  and  very  shy,  and  he  was  too  busy  to 
consider  his  own  safety,  or  to  take  time,  as 
the  others  did,  to  show  that  he  was  not 
considering  it.  Some  of  the  other  officers 
stood  up  on  the  breastworks  and  called 
the  attention  of  the  men  to  what  they 
were  doing ;  but  as  they  did  not  wish  the 
men  to  follow  their  example  in  this,  it  was 
difficult  to  see  what  they  expected  to  gain 
by  their  braggadocio.  Frantzis  was  as  un- 
concerned as  an  artist  painting  a  big  pict- 
ure in  his  studio.  The  battle  plain  below 
him  was  his  canvas,  and  his  nine  mountain- 
guns  were  his  paint-brushes.  And  he  paint- 
ed out  Turks  and  Turkish  cannon  with 
the  same  concentrated,  serious  expression 
of  countenance  that  you  see  on  the  face  of 
an  artist  when  he  bites  one  brush  between 

his  lips  and  with  another  wipes  out  a  false 

248 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

line  or  a  touch  of  the  wrong  color.  You 
have  seen  an  artist  cock  his  head  on  one 
side,  and  shut  one  eye  and  frown  at  his  can- 
vas, and  then  select  several  brushes  and 
mix  different  colors  and  hit  the  canvas  a 
bold  stroke,  and  then  lean  back  to  note  the 
effect.  Frantzis  acted  in  just  that  way. 
He  would  stand  with  his  legs  apart  and 
his  head  on  one  side,  pulling  meditatively 
at  his  pointed  beard,  and  then  he  would 
take  a  closer  look  through  his  field-glasses, 
and  then  select  the  three  guns  which  he 
had  decided  would  give  him  the  effect  that 
he  wanted  to  produce,  and  he  would  pro- 
duce that  effect.  When  the  shot  struck 
plump  in  the  Turkish  lines,  and  we  could 
see  the  earth  leap  up  into  the  air  like  gey- 
sers of  muddy  water,  and  every  one  would 
wave  his  cap  and  cheer,  Frantzis  would 
only  smile  uncertainly,  and  begin  again  to 
puzzle  out  fresh  combinations  with  the  aid 
of  his  field-glasses. 

The  battle  that  had  begun  in  a  storm  of 
hail  ended  on  the  first  day  in  a  storm  of 
249 


WITH   THE   GREEK    SOLDIERS 

bullets  that  had  been  held  in  reserve  by 
the  Turks,  and  which  were  let  off  just  after 
sundown.  They  came  from  a  natural  trench, 
formed  by  the  dried-up  bed  of  a  stream 
which  lay  just  below  the  hill  on  which  the 
first  Greek  trench  was  situated.  There 
were  bushes  growing  on  the  bank  of  the 
stream  nearest  to  the  Greek  lines,  and  these 
hid  the  men  who  occupied  it.  Throughout 
the  day  there  had  been  an  irritating  fire 
from  this  trench  from  what  appeared  to  be 
not  more  than  a  dozen  rifles,  but  we  could 
see  that  it  was  fed  from  time  to  time  with 
many  boxes  of  ammunition,  which  were 
carried  to  it  on  the  backs  of  mules  from 
the  Turkish  position  a  half-mile  farther  to 
the  rear.  Bass  and  a  corporal  took  a  great 
aversion  to  this  little  group  of  Turks,  not 
because  there  were  too  many  of  them  to 
be  disregarded,  but  because  they  were  so 
near;  and  Bass  kept  the  corporal's  ser- 
vices engaged  in  firing  into  it,  and  in  dis- 
couraging  the    ammunition  -  mules   when 

they  were  being  driven  in  that  direction. 
250 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

Our  corporal  was  a  sharp-shooter,  and,  ac- 
cordingly, felt  his  superiority  to  his  com- 
rades ;  and  he  had  that  cheerful  contempt 
for  his  officers  that  all  true  Greek  soldiers 
enjoy,  and  so  he  never  joined  in  the  volley- 
firing,  but  kept  his  ammunition  exclusively 
for  the  dozen  men  behind  the  bushes  and 
for  the  mules.  He  waged,  as  it  were,  a 
little  battle  on  his  own  account.  The  other 
men  rose  as  commanded  and  fired  regular 
volleys,  and  sank  back  again,  but  he  fixed 
his  sights  to  suit  his  own  idea  of  the  range, 
and  he  rose  when  he  was  ready  to  do  so, 
and  fired  whenever  he  thought  best.  When 
his  officer,  who  kept  curled  up  in  the  hol- 
low of  the  trench,  commanded  him  to  lie 
down,  he  would  frown  and  shake  his  head 
at  the  interruption,  and  paid  no  further 
attention  to  the  order.  He  was  as  much 
alone  as  a  hunter  on  a  mountain  peak 
stalking  deer,  and  whenever  he  fired  at 
the  men  in  the  bushes  he  would  swear 
softly,  and  when  he  fired  at  the  mules  he 
would  chuckle  and  laugh  with  delight 
251 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

and  content.  The  mules  had  to  cross  a 
ploughed  field  in  order  to  reach  the  bush- 
es, and  so  we  were  able  to  mark  where  his 
bullets  struck,  and  we  could  see  them  skip 
across  the  field,  kicking  up  the  dirt  as  they 
advanced,  until  they  stopped  the  mule  al- 
together, or  frightened  the  man  who  was 
leading  it  into  a  disorderly  retreat. 

It  appeared  later  that  instead  of  there 
being  but  twelve  men  in  these  bushes 
there  were  six  hundred,  and  that  they  were 
hiding  there  until  the  sun  set  in  order  to 
make  a  final  attack  on  the  first  trench. 
They  had  probably  argued  that  at  sunset 
the  strain  of  the  day's  work  would  have 
told  on  the  Greek  morale,  that  the  men's 
nerves  would  be  jerking  and  their  stomachs 
aching  for  food,  and  that  they  would  be 
ready  for  darkness  and  sleep,  and  in  no 
condition  to  repulse  a  fresh  and  vigorous 
attack.  So,  just  as  the  sun  sank,  and  the 
officers  were  counting  the  cost  in  dead  and 
wounded,  and  the  men  were  gathering  up 

blankets  and  overcoats,  and  the  firing  from 

252 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

the  Greek  lines  had  almost  ceased,  there 
came  a  fierce  rattle  from  the  trench  to  the 
right  of  us,  like  a  watch-dog  barking  the 
alarm,  and  the  others  took  it  up  from  all 
over  the  hill,  and  when  we  looked  down 
into  the  plain  below  to  learn  what  it  meant, 
we  saw  it  blue  with  men,  who  seemed  to 
have  sprung  from  the  earth.  They  were 
clambering  from  the  bed  of  the  stream, 
breaking  through  the  bushes,  and  forming 
into  a  long  line,  which,  as  soon  as  formed, 
was  at  once  hidden  at  regular  intervals  by 
flashes  of  flame  that  seemed  to  leap  from 
one  gun -barrel  to  the  next,  as  you  have 
seen  a  current  of  electricity  run  along  a 
line  of  gas-jets.  In  the  dim  twilight  these 
flashes  were  much  more  blinding  than 
they  had  been  in  the  glare  of  the  sun,  and 
the  crash  of  the  artillery  coming  on  top  of 
the  silence  was  the  more  fierce  and  terrible 
by  the  contrast.  The  Turks  were  so  close 
on  us  that  the  first  trench  could  do  little  to 
help  itself,  and  the  men  huddled  against  it 
while  their  comrades  on  the  surrounding 
253 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

hills  fought  for  them,  their  volleys  passing 
close  above  our  heads,  and  meeting  the 
rush  of  the  Turkish  bullets  on  the  way,  so 
that  there  was  now  one  continuous  whist- 
ling shriek,  like  the  roar  of  the  wind 
through  the  rigging  of  a  ship  in  a  storm. 
If  a  man  had  raised  his  arm  above  his 
head  his  hand  would  have  been  torn  off. 
It  had  come  up  so  suddenly  that  it  was 
like  two  dogs  springing  at  each  others' 
throats,  and  in  a  greater  degree  it  had 
something  of  the  sound  of  two  wild  animals 
struggling  for  life.  Volley  answered  vol- 
ley as  though  with  personal  hate  —  one 
crashing  in  upon  the  roll  of  the  other,  or 
beating  it  out  of  recognition  with  the  burst- 
ing roar  of  heavy  cannon.  At  the  same 
instant  all  of  the  Turkish  batteries  opened 
with  great,  ponderous,  booming  explosions, 
and  the  little  mountain-guns  barked  and 
snarled  and  shrieked  back  at  them,  and  the 
rifle  volleys  crackled  and  shot  out  blister- 
ing flames,  while  the  air  was  filled  with  in- 
visible express  trains  that  shook  and  jarred 
254 


WITH   THE   GREEK   SOLDIERS 

it  and  crashed  into  one  another,  bursting 
and  shrieking  and  groaning.  It  seemed 
as  though  you  were  lying  in  a  burning 
forest,  with  giant  tree  trunks  that  had  with- 
stood the  storms  of  centuries  crashing  and 
falling  around  your  ears,  and  sending  up 
great  showers  of  sparks  and  flame.  This 
lasted  for  five  minutes  or  less,  and  then  the 
death -grip  seemed  to  relax,  the  volleys 
came  brokenly,  like  a  man  panting  for 
breath,  the  bullets  ceased  to  sound  with 
the  hiss  of  escaping  steam,  and  rustled  aim- 
lessly by,  and  from  hill-top  to  hill-top  the 
officers'  whistles  sounded  as  though  a 
sportsman  were  calling  off  his  dogs.  The 
Turks  withdrewT  into  the  coming  night, 
and  the  Greeks  lay  back,  panting  and 
sweating,  and  stared  open  -  eyed  at  one 
another,  like  men  who  had  looked  for  a 
moment  into  hell,  and  had  come  back  to 
the  world  again. 

The  next  day  was  like  the  first,  except 
that  by  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the 
Turks  appeared  on  our  left  flank,  crawling 
255 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

across  the  hills  like  an  invasion  of  great 
ants,  and  the  Greek  army  that  had  made 
the  two  best  and  most  dignified  stands 
of  the  war  at  Velestinos  withdrew  upon 
Halmyros,  and  the  Turks  poured  into  the 
village  and  burned  it,  leaving  nothing 
standing  save  two  tall  Turkish  minarets 
that  they  had  built  many  years  before, 
when  Thessaly  belonged  to  the  Sultan. 

There  have  been  many  Turkish  mina- 
rets within  the  last  two  years  standing 
above  burning  villages  and  deserted  homes 
all  over  Asia  Minor  and  Armenia.  They 
have  looked  down  upon  the  massacre  of 
twenty  thousand  people  within  these  last 
two  years,  and  upon  the  destruction  of  no 
one  knows  how  many  villages.  If  the 
five  Powers  did  not  support  these  mina- 
rets, they  would  crumble  away  and  fall  to 
pieces.  Greece  tried  to  upset  them,  but 
she  was  not  brave  enough,  nor  wise  enough, 
nor  strong  enough,  and  so  they  still  stand, 

as  these  two  stand  at  Velestinos,  pointing 
256 


WITH   THE   GREEK  SOLDIERS 

to  the  sky  above  the  ruins  of  the  pret- 
ty village.  Some  people  think  that  all  of 
them  have  been  standing  quite  long  enough 
— that  it  is  time  they  came  down  forever. 


THE  QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 


THE   QUEEN'S    JUBILEE 


AS  the  day  for  celebrating  the  Dia- 
.  mond  Jubilee  drew  nearer,  the  inter- 
est in  it  increased  in  proportion,  and  fed 
on  itself,  spreading  and  growing  until  it 
overwhelmed  every  other  interest  of  the 
British  Empire.  To  the  people  of  London 
the  signs  of  its  approach  were  only  too  ob- 
vious, but  long  before  it  had  given  any 
outward  warning  of  its  coming  in  that 
city,  men  were  already  working  to  make  it 
a  success,  not  in  the  Lord  Chamberlain's 
office  alone,  but  in  barracks  and  work- 
shops, in  fields  and  in  ship-yards,  and  it 
had  upset  values  and  demoralized  trade  in 
certain  avenues  all  over  the  wide  world. 
So  far  in  advance  did  the  people  prepare 

for  its  coming  that  managers  of  hotels  in 

261 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

London  bought  up  whole  fields  before  the 
green  stuffs  they  would  produce  later  had 
been  planted  and  while  the  ground  was 
covered  with  snow.  An  invitation  to  dine 
on  a  certain  night  in  June  was  sent  to  the 
colonial  premiers  in  January,  six  months 
before  the  dinner  was  cooked ;  and  on  ac- 
count of  the  expected  presence  in  London 
of  an  additional  million  and  a  half  of  people, 
food  stuffs  to  feed  them  were  imported 
months  before,  and  freight  rates  from  the 
River  Plate  and  New  Zealand  rose  thirty  per 
cent,  in  consequence.  This  fact  alone,  which 
comes  from  the  underwriters,  suggests  how 
far-reaching  were  the  effects  of  the  Jubilee, 
and  also  how  tightly  the  world  is  now  knit 
together,  since  a  street  parade  in  London 
disturbs  traffic  in  Auckland  and  on  the 
Bay  of  Plenty.  The  people  in  London 
regarded  the  celebration  itself  from  two 
widely  different  points  of  view — some  were 
for  putting  themselves  as  far  away  from  it 
as  possible,  while  the  one  idea  of  the  oth- 
ers was  to  use  their  influence  and  money 
262 


THE   QUEEN  S    JUBILEE 

to  see  it  all,  and  to  the  best  advantage. 
So  earnest  were  the  former  in  their  efforts  to 
escape  that  all  of  the  steam-launches  on  the 
Thames  were  hired  for  Jubilee  Day  many 
weeks  in  advance  ;  while  for  the  use  of  the 
others  every  window  facing  the  route  of 
the  procession  was  put  at  their  disposal, 
either  by  invitation  or  at  prices  ranging 
from  five  dollars  to  five  hundred.  One 
house  in  Piccadilly  was  rented  for  the 
week  to  an  American  at  ten  thousand  dol- 
lars. A  room  facing  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
in  front  of  which  the  chief  ceremony  of  the 
day  occurred,  was  advertised  at  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars ;  seats  on  a  roof  at  the 
same  place  were  sold  for  fifty  dollars  each; 
and,  in  order  to  obtain  room  for  a  stand 
near  by,  an  entire  building  was  torn  down, 
the  lessees  contracting  to  replace  it  after 
the  Jubilee  with  another. 

For  a  month  previous  to  the  Jubilee  this 
speculation  in  windows  and  stands  seemed 
to  be  the  chief  means  in  London  of  mak- 
ing money.    It  was  like  a  miniature  South 
263 


THE    QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

Sea  bubble,  or  the  late  gamble  in  Kaffirs; 
syndicate  after  syndicate  bought  up  the 
building-lots  and  half-finished  houses  bor- 
dering on  the  route  of  the  procession,  and 
came  into  the  market  offering  seats  at  the 
best  place  from  which  to  see  it,  which 
seemed  to  be  at  every  possible  point  along 
the  entire  route,  The  prices  asked  by 
these  gentlemen  had  their  effect,  and  soon 
there  was  hardly  a  building  of  any  sort 
that  faced  or  was  even  near  the  route  that 
was  not  converted  into  a  stand  for  specta- 
tors. Churches  built  huge  structures  over 
their  graveyards  that  towered  almost  to 
the  steeples,  and  theatres,  hotels,  restau- 
rants, and  shops  of  every  description  were 
so  covered  with  scaffoldings  that  it  was 
impossible  to  distinguish  a  book-store  from 
a  public-house,  so  enveloped  were  they  by 
planks  and  price-lists  of  seats.  Some  of 
the  shopkeepers  advertised  "  free  "  seats  to 
the  most  generous  purchasers  of  their 
wares,  and  others   offered    luncheon   and 

dinner,  with  the  choice  of  "champagne  or 

264 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

tea,"  to  possible  patrons.  Landlords  and 
householders  along  the  route  gave  notice 
to  tenants  of  months'  occupation  whose 
windows  faced  the  streets  to  move  out  at 
once,  and  as  the  tenants  naturally  object- 
ed, a  series  of  forcible  evictions  took  place, 
and  in  many  cases  the  neighbors  sided 
with  the  tenants,  and  there  were  fighting 
and  rioting  in  consequence.  Paragraphs 
like  the  following  appeared  in  the  papers 
daily : 

"  Another  Jubilee  eviction  took  place  last  evening 
amid  great  excitement  in  the  Borough  Road.  The 
doors  of  the  house  were  barricaded,  and  had  to  be  bat- 
tered in  before  admission  could  be  obtained.  A  large 
force  of  police  were  present." 

The  demand  for  windows  and  seats  gave 
a  rare  chance  to  the  unscrupulous,  and  the 
same  seats  were  sold  several  times  to  dif- 
ferent people  by  men  who  had  no  right  to 
sell  them  at  all.  These  gentlemen  even 
went  so  far  afield  as  Port  Said,  where  they 
met  passengers  from  Australia  and  India 

and  showed  them  plans  of  seats,  and  sold 

265 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

them,  in  exchange  for  many  guineas,  beau- 
tifully colored  tickets  that  called  for  places 
which  only  existed  on  paper ;  and  even  the 
astute  "  Yankees,"  to  the  delight  of  the 
English  newspapers,  when  they  arrived  at 
Liverpool,  were  cajoled  into  buying  from 
these  ingenious  gentlemen,  one  man  pay- 
ing two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  for  two 
seats  for  which  he  may  be  still  looking. 

This  gamble  for  seats  was  perhaps  un- 
fortunate in  giving  the  impression  that  the 
Jubilee,  instead  of  being  an  expression  of 
devotion  and  loyalty,  had  be  en  turned  into 
a  chance  for  money-making,  and  that  the 
nation  of  shopkeepers  was  living  up  to  its 
name.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  was  not 
the  case,  and  more  money  was  spent  by 
the  shopkeepers  in  decorating  and  illumi- 
nating than  they  received  from  their  win- 
dows ;  and  the  syndicates,  as  it  turned  out 
eventually,  lost  heavily,  and  many  of  the 
speculators  were  left  absolutely  bankrupt ; 
as  the  contractors  who  supplied  them  w  ^ 

lumber  raised  the  prices  to  four  and  five 
266 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

times  the  regular  figures,  and  the  carpen- 
ters and  joiners  went  on  strike  daily  for 
higher  and  higher  wages,  until  it  was  esti- 
mated that  the  average  cost  of  building 
a  stand  rose  from  twelve  shillings  a  seat 
to  nineteen  shillings,  so  that  if  the  specu- 
lators had  asked  a  guinea  for  eighteen 
inches  of  pine  board  they  would  only  have 
made  fifty  cents  profit.  Even  had  the 
prices  originally  demanded  by  the  specu- 
lators and  syndicates  been  paid  by  the 
public,  they  would  not  have  recovered 
what  they  had  spent  in  labor  and  material. 
As  it  was,  when  the  day  arrived,  seats  ad- 
vertised at  fifteen  dollars  sold  for  two  dol- 
lars and  a  half,  and  those  facing  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  which  were  advertised  at  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  were  sold 
for  twenty-five  dollars.  That  was  the  aver- 
age drop  in  prices  all  along  the  line  of 
procession. 

While  this  speculation  was  raging,  and 
contractors  and  syndicates  and  labor  un- 
ions and  landlords  were  showing  a  sordid 
267 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

desire  for  the  mighty  dollar,  the  remainder 
of  the  people  were  going  quite  mad  in  their 
loyalty  and  enthusiasm  over  the  Queen 
and  the  greatest  birthday  of  her  reign. 
Ambitious  and  intricate  illuminations  com- 
posed of  colored  glass  and  gas-jets  began 
to  spread  over  the  entire  city.  There  was 
not  a  street,  hardly  a  house,  that  did  not 
show  the  letters  V.  R.  Sometimes  they 
were  cut  out  of  colored  paper  with  a  pair 
of  scissors  and  stuck  behind  a  dirty  win- 
dow-pane, and  sometimes  they  were  of  cut 
glass  and  weighed  many  pounds,  and  hid 
the  entire  story  of  a  house,  and  they  be- 
came as  familiar  on  the  front  of  every 
Englishman's  castle  as  they  are  on  the 
round  red  letter-boxes.  Gilded  lions  and 
unicorns,  imperial  crowns  of  colored  glass, 
and  the  numerals  37-97  formed  with  rows 
of  tiny  fairy-lamps,  and  the  flags  of  Eng- 
land reproduced  in  silk  or  in  printed  mus- 
lin, testified  to  the  loyalty  of  shopkeepers, 
householders,    clubs,    banks,    and    hotels. 

Members  of  the    royal   family,   whenever 

268 


THE    QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

they  appeared  in  public,  were  received 
more  royally  than  they  had  ever  been  be- 
fore ;  and  at  the  military  tournament,  at 
the  theatres,  and  at  all  the  music-halls, 
songs,  scenes,  and  ballets  illustrating  the 
growth  and  power  of  the  empire  were  the 
chief  features  of  each  performance,  and 
were  received  nightly  with  shouts  and 
cheers.  At  one  music-hall  the  national 
anthem  was  sung  three  times  in  one  even- 
ing, the  audience  rising  each  time  and 
singing  the  words  as  fervently  as  though 
they  were  in  church.  One  of  the  most  cu- 
rious illustrations  of  the  feeling  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  at  the  time  of  the  Jubilee  oc- 
curred one  night  in  the  Savoy  restaurant 
— perhaps  the  last  place  one  would  look 
for  the  higher  emotions — when  the  Hun- 
garian band  suddenly  struck  into  the  na- 
tional anthem,  and  the  entire  room,  filled 
with  strangers,  of  men  from  all  over  the 
world  and  of  women  from  both  worlds, 
rose  from    their  chairs   and  cheered  and 

waved    napkins,    and    remained    standing 
269 


THE    QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

until  the  music  ended  and  while  their  din- 
ners grew  cold. 

It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  any  event 
could  ever  disturb  the  settled  majesty  of 
London,  or  that  any  power  would  dare  to 
intrude  upon  her  inexorable  laws  of  the 
road,  upon  her  early  closing  hours,  her 
sombre,  sooty  countenance,  and  the  in- 
terminable caravans  in  her  streets.  Even 
an  earthquake  would  hesitate  at  the  im- 
pertinence of  jarring  London.  But  the 
Jubilee  upset  that  city  as  it  is  to  be  hoped 
nothing  ever  will  do  again,  and  for  three 
weeks  the  capital  of  the  world  did  not 
know  herself.  She  was  like  the  old  lady 
who  had  her  skirts  cut  off  and  at  whom 
even  her  own  dog  barked.  For  her  great 
grim  house-fronts,  which  the  soft  soot  had 
turned  into  sweet  and  venerable  castles, 
were  painted  a  glaring  yellow ;  her  public 
statues  were  scrubbed  until  they  were 
positively  indecent;  her  islands  of  safety 
at  the   crossways  were  uprooted  and  the 

street   lamps   carried  away ;  her  sky  -  line 

270 


THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

was  broken  by  tiers  of  yellow-pine  seats ; 
her  great  thoroughfares,  the  highways  of 
the  world,  were  lined  with  giant  packing- 
cases  instead  of  houses ;  and  her  deep 
murmur  which  rumbles  and  rises  and  falls 
like  the  "  roaring  loom  of  Time,"  was 
broken  by  the  ceaseless  banging  of  ham- 
mers and  the  scraping  of  saws.  The  smell 
of  soft  coal,  which  is  perhaps  the  first  and 
most  distinctive  feature  of  London  to  greet 
the  arriving  American,  was  changed  to 
that  of  green  pine,  so  that  the  town  smelt 
like  a  Western  mining-camp.  All  the  old 
landmarks  disappeared,  the  National  Gal- 
lery was  disguised  by  a  grandstand  as 
large  as  that  at  the  Polo  Grounds,  the 
statues  in  Trafalgar  Square  peeped  over 
high  wooden  fences,  and  looked  as  though 
they  had  been  boxed  up  for  shipment ;  in 
some  places  trees  were  cut  down,  and  in 
others  stands  were  built  high  in  the  air 
above  them,  so  that  where  there  had  been 
open  places,  with  green  turf  and  waving 

branches,    there    were    fixed  interminable 
271 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

walls  of  yellow  boards.  Between  the  ris- 
ing skeletons  of  rafters  and  scaffolding 
there  came  what  was  at  first  a  hardly  per- 
ceptible increase  in  the  great  tidal  waves 
of  traffic  ;  but  this  swelled  and  grew  until 
at  certain  points  all  movements  in  the 
streets  were  stopped  for  half-hours  at  a 
time,  and  carriages  went  where  the  current 
took  them  and  not  where  they  wished  to 
go.  At  Hamilton  Place,  and  where  Berke- 
ley Street  breaks  into  Piccadilly,  it  would 
have  been  possible  at  many  hours  of  the 
day  to  walk  for  a  hundred  yards  on  the 
tops  of  hansoms  and  'buses  and  vans,  lock- 
ed together  as  tightly  as  logs  in  a  jam  of 
lumber.  One  man,  who  was  driving  his 
own  dog-cart  to  a  luncheon,  was  caught  in 
the  crush  at  Hamilton  Place,  and  sent  his 
groom  into  the  Bachelors'  Club  to  forward 
a  telegram  to  his  hostess,  saying  he  would 
probably  be  late,  and  he  arrived  eventually 
twenty  minutes  after  the  telegram  had 
been  received.     On  account  of  these  dams 

in  the   current,    cabmen   discovered    new 

272 


THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

streets  in  unknown  territories,  or  refused 
point-blank  to  venture  into  certain  thor- 
oughfares unless  they  were  taken  by  the 
hour.  Others  did  not  attempt  to  take  out 
a  cab  at  all,  for  a  shilling  fare  often  kept 
them  buried  for  an  hour  and  a  half  in 
some  great  barricade  that  moved  only  when 
the  sweating  policeman  had  broken  anoth- 
er barricade  as  great,  and  one  of  the  two 
lurched  forward,  with  brakes  snapping  as 
they  were  unlocked,  and  whips  cracking, 
and  hundreds  of  hoofs  slipping  and  pound- 
ing on  the  asphalt. 

But  it  was  on  the  sidewalks  that  the 
coming  event  cast  its  most  picturesque 
shadows,  and  showed  the  most  effective 
signs  of  the  times.  These  shadows  were 
substantial  enough,  and  wore  kharki  tu- 
nics, and  broad  sombreros,  and  bandoleers 
heavy  with  cartridges  swinging  from  the 
left  shoulder,  or  they  were  in  brilliant 
turbans  of  India  silk,  or  red  fezes ;  they 
were  black  of  face,  or  brown,  or  yellow, 
and  up  to  that  time  they  had  been  familiar 

s  273 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

to  the  cockneys  of  London  only  through 
the  illustrated  papers  and  the  ballads  of 
Mr.  Rudyard  Kipling.  But  now  they  met 
them  face  to  face,  wearing  their  odd  uni- 
forms, speaking  their  impossible  tongues, 
and  worshipping  strange  gods,  but  each  of 
them  showing  in  every  movement  that  it 
was  a  British  drill-sergeant  who  had  pulled 
his  shoulders  back  and  chucked  his  chin 
in  the  air,  and  taught  him  to  swagger  and 
cut  his  leg  with  his  whip  when  he  walked, 
and  to  stick  it  in  his  boot  when  he  stood 
at  ease,  with  his  gauntlets  under  his  shoul- 
der-strap. There  were  so  many  things 
to  look  at  in  those  Jubilee  days  that  per- 
haps no  one  appreciated  them  fully  until 
they  were  gone,  and  Tommy  in  his  red 
jacket  and  pill  -  box  cap  began  once  more 
to  take  his  original  value  in  the  life  of  the 
streets.  But  while  they  continued,  not 
even  a  house-maid  looked  at  him.  Even 
the  red  and  gold  liveries  of  the  royal 
coachmen,  who  were  as  plentiful  as  han- 
som-cab drivers,  were  no  more  regarded 
274 


THE    QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

in  comparison  than  the  red  coats  of  the 
crossing -sweepers.  It  was  the  Colonials 
that  people  turned  to  look  after;  and  the 
Chinese  police  from  the  British  treaty- 
port  at  Hong-kong,  with  flat  enamelled 
soup-plates  on  their  heads;  and  the  broad- 
lipped  negroes  from  the  Gold  Coast  of 
Africa,  and  Jamaica,  and  Trinidad ;  the 
reformed  head-hunters  from  Borneo,  now 
clothed  in  brown  kharki  and  in  their  right 
minds ;  and  the  Mohammedans  from  Cy- 
prus, at  whom  the  costers  in  the  East  End 
hooted  at  first,  mistaking  them  for  the  un- 
speakable Turk.  But  before  all  the  others 
the  Rhodesian  Horse,  because  they  were 
associated  in  the  mind  of  the  "  man  on  the 
omnibus"  with  Cecil  Rhodes  and  the  Ma- 
tabele  wars  and  the  Jameson  raid.  There 
was  much  reason  to  envy  these  happy  few 
who  were  chosen  to  represent  the  different 
British  colonies  and  possessions  at  the 
Jubilee,  for  London  does  not  hold  out  her 
hand  to  most  strangers.  Some,  when  they 
go  there,  are  thankful  enough  to  have  their 
275 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

existence  recognized  by  a  hansom -cab 
driver  raising  his  whip,  and  the  translation 
of  these  men  must  have  been  startling. 
They  were  probably  worthy  young  men, 
but  at  home  they  were  part  of  a  whole 
regiment,  and  of  no  more  honor  in  their 
own  country  than  so  many  policemen, 
while  in  their  eyes  London  was  the  capital 
of  the  world,  and  a  place  where  good  colo- 
nists go  to  spend  money,  and  where  they 
are  content  if  they  can  look  on  as  humble 
spectators.  But  these  men  found,  when 
they  reached  the  great  capital,  that  they 
were  as  gods  and  heroes,  and  their  strange 
uniforms  passed  them  freely  into  theatres 
and  music-halls  and  public -houses,  and 
women  smiled  on  them,  and  men  quarrel- 
led to  have  the  privilege  of  standing  them 
a  drink.  Banquets  and  special  perform- 
ances, medals  and  titles,  were  showered 
upon  them  according  to  their  rank  and  de- 
gree, and  they  in  their  turn  furnished  the 
most  picturesque  feature  of  the  spectacle 

when  it  came. 

276 


THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

Within  a  week  of  the  great  day  the 
stands  began  to  clothe  themselves  decent- 
ly in  red  cloth,  and  those  decorations  that 
had  been  held  back  until  the  last,  from 
fear  of  the  rain,  were  hung  on  the  outer 
walls,  and  mottoes  and  insignia  and  plants 
and  flowers,  which  made  the  shops  look 
like  house -boats  at  Henley,  were  spread 
along  every  foot  of  the  six  miles.  To  see 
these,  a  procession  of  wagons,  drags,  and 
'buses  travelled  over  the  route  carrying 
people  from  the  suburbs  and  from  all  over 
London,  and  the  already  swollen  avenues 
of  traffic  became  impassable,  and  it  was 
only  possible  to  move  about  by  going  on 
foot.  When  a  stranger  asked  how  long  it 
would  take  to  reach  a  certain  point,  he  was 
told,  ten  minutes  if  he  walked,  or  forty  min- 
utes if  he  took  a  cab.  The  decorations 
were  not  beautiful,  and,  with  the  exception 
of  those  in  St.  James's  Street,  there  was  no 
harmony  of  design  nor  scheme  of  color, 
and  a  great  opportunity  was  lost.     There 

was  probably  no  other  time  when  so  much 

277 


THE    QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

money  was  spent  in  display  with  results  so 
inadequate.  Had  the  government  put  the 
matter  in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  ar- 
tists, much  might  have  been  done  that 
would  teach  a  lesson  for  the  future,  and 
have  made  the  route  of  the  procession  a 
valley  full  of  beauty  and  significance ;  but, 
as  it  was,  every  householder  followed  his 
own  ideas,  and  so,  while  the  loyalty  dis- 
played was  quite  evident,  the  taste  was 
most  primitive.  It  was  the  same  sort  of 
decoration  that  one  sees  on  a  Christmas- 
tree. 

The  prophets  of  disaster  and  the  sensa- 
tion-mongers were  not  idle  in  those  days, 
and,  looking  back  now  to  the  event,  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  believe  the  celebration 
held  such  terrors  at  the  time,  for  nearly 
every  one  thought  it  could  not  come  off 
without  such  another  sacrifice  as  that  at 
Moscow  during  the  Coronation,  or  the  pan- 
ic at  the  Charity  Bazaar  in  Paris.  One  pre- 
diction was  that  the  Embankment  would 

not  be  able  to  support  the  crowd,  and  that 

278 


THE    QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

it  would  cave  in  on  the  tracks  of  the  under- 
ground railroad.  Another  was  that  the 
East  End  would  rise  in  its  might  and  take 
possession  of  the  stands,  and  would  keep 
the  seats  for  which  the  West  End  had  paid 
so  many  guineas  ;  and  it  was  said  that  eight 
thousand  coffins  had  been  ordered  in  Paris, 
and  had  been  sent  over  in  readiness  for 
the  loss  of  life  that  was  expected  to  follow 
when  the  masses  gathered  in  such  a  multi- 
tude. And  forebodings  of  falling  stands 
and  sudden  panics,  and  of  fires,  and  of  mobs 
of  people  crushing  each  other  to  death, 
were  in  the  minds  of  every  one.  That  none 
of  these  things  happened  was  perhaps  the 
most  remarkable  and  interesting  fact  of  the 
whole  Jubilee.  In  any  other  city  one  or 
all  of  these  things  might  have  occurred, 
but  the  English  conservatism,  and  the 
English  regard  for  the  law,  and  the  won- 
derful management  and  executive  ability 
shown  in  organizing  the  procession  and 
in   disciplining  the    spectators,  prevented 

it.     The  chief  credit  is  undoubtedly  due 

279 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

to  the  head  of  the  police,  and  to  the  fact 
that  when  he  had  decided  which  was  the 
best  way  to  regulate  the  movements  of  the 
people,  the  people  were  willing  to  abide  by 
his  decision.  For  many  months  before  the 
procession  the  police  studied  the  map  of 
London,  with  the  line  of  the  parade  marked 
out  on  it,  and  considered  every  possible 
accident  that  might  occur,  and  every  act 
that  might  lead  up  to  such  an  accident. 
They  rehearsed  what  the  populace  would 
do  at  every  hour  of  the  day;  from  which 
points  people  would  come  on  foot,  and 
from  which  points  they  would  come  in 
carriages ;  where  they  would  collect  in  the 
greatest  numbers ;  and  when  the  proces- 
sion had  passed  one  point,  in  what  direc- 
tion they  would  rush  in  order  to  view  it 
from  another. 

The  problem  was  such  a  one  as  would 
present  itself  to  the  police  of  New  York, 
were  it  necessary  to  protect  a  route  six 
miles  in  length  which  would  cross  from 

New  York  to   Brooklyn   over  one  bridge 

280 


THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

and  return  by  another,  were  there  such  a 
bridge.  It  was  expected  that  three  millions 
of  people  would  view  the  procession,  and 
that  it  would  be  necessary  to  bring  fifty 
thousand  soldiers  into  London  in  order  to 
line  the  route  properly  —  that  is,  with  as 
many  soldiers  as,  had  they  been  placed 
shoulder  to  shoulder,  would  have  stretched 
in  a  straight  line  for  thirty-two  miles.  The 
chief  danger  that  presented  itself  was  that 
the  crowd,  having  seen  the  procession  in 
London,  would  rush  across  to  the  Surrey 
side  to  see  it  again,  and  that  the  people  on 
the  Surrey  side  would  cross  over  to  London. 
The  police  cut  this  Gordian  knot  by  treat- 
ing the  two  banks  of  the  river  separately, 
and  by  closing  London  Bridge  at  midnight 
on  the  day  before  the  Jubilee,  and  the  four 
bridges  nearest  to  the  route  of  the  proces- 
sion on  the  day  of  the  Jubilee  from  eight 
in  the  morning  until  three  in  the  afternoon. 
In  other  parts  of  London  all  vehicular  traf- 
fic was  stopped  at  different  points  from 

seven  o'clock  up  to  ten,  and  only  certain 

281 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

streets  crossing  the  line  of  the  procession 
were  open.  No  carts  or  wagons,  or  even 
people  on  horseback,  were  allowed  to  take 
up  a  place  in  the  cross  streets  within  a  hun- 
dred feet  of  the  procession,  and  no  boxes 
nor  ladders  nor  camp-stools  were  allowed 
within  the  same  limited  boundaries.  The 
greatest  danger  to  the  public  safety  during 
the  great  parades  in  New  York  City  is  the 
criminal  practice  of  allowing  trucks  and 
drays,  which  are  used  as  temporary  stands, 
to  take  up  places  on  the  cross  streets.  In 
case  of  a  stampede  they  would  completely 
cut  off  every  outlet  from  the  main  thor- 
oughfare, and  impede  the  passage  of  fire- 
engines  and  ambulances.  It  is  a  mistaken 
kindness  on  the  part  of  the  authorities,  for, 
while  the  owners  of  the  trucks  and  drays 
may  make  a  few  dollars  by  renting  seats, 
their  barricades  may  cost  many  hundreds 
of  lives. 

This  route  over  which  the  Queen  was  to 
drive,  and  which  was  guarded  so  admirably, 

and  made  beautiful  by  the  display  of  such 

282 


THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

loyal  good  feeling,  held  in  its  six  miles  of 
extent  more  places  of  historical  value  to  the 
English-speaking  race  than  perhaps  any 
other  six  miles  that  could  be  picked  off  on 
a  map  of  the  world. 

One  of  the  English  papers  said  that 
each  step  of  the  route  was  a  lesson  in 
English  history,  and  pointed  out  some  of 
the  many  features  that  made  it  historical ; 
and  it  was  these  points  of  interest  that  gave 
the  route  and  the  procession  its  great  dig- 
nity and  its  magnificent  significance.  It 
was  not  the  troops  that  guarded  it,  nor  the 
decorations  of  an  hour  that  hung  on  its  two 
sides,  nor  the  flying  banners  that  hid  it 
from  the  sun.  Queen  Victoria  was  the 
first  English  sovereign  to  use  Buckingham 
Palace  as  a  royal  residence,  and,  according 
to  the  route  laid  down  for  her  to  follow  on 
the  2 2d  of  June,  it  was  from  this  palace, 
which  she  had  first  entered  a  month  after 
her  accession,  sixty  years  before,  that  she 
was  to  set  forth  on  the  greatest  triumphal 

procession  of  her  reign.     Three   millions 

283 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

of  loyal  subjects  and  crown-princes  of  for- 
eign and  barbarous  courts,  ambassadors 
and  Christian  archbishops,  field -marshals 
and  colonial  premiers,  red-coated  Tommys, 
costers,  and  publicans,  would  line  this  route 
to  greet  her  on  her  way ;  but  greater  than 
any  of  these  were  the  dumb  statues  and 
silent  signs  of  those  who  had  gone  before, 
who  had  made  that  triumphal  procession 
possible,  who  had  created  her  empire,  and 
who  had  spread  and  upheld  her  dominion 
on  the  land  and  on  the  sea. 

At  the  top  of  Constitution  Hill  she 
would  find  the  Iron  Duke  waiting  for  her 
on  his  bronze  charger,  and  he  might  ask, 
"  What  is  my  part  in  this  triumph  ?"  and 
he  could  answer,  "  I  held  back  Napoleon." 
At  this  corner,  where  to-day  there  is  the 
greatest  crash  of  traffic  and  the  most  lav- 
ish display  of  wealth  and  fashion  in  the 
world,  the  toll-gates  which  separated  the 
open  country  from  London  once  stood, 
and  not  so  long  ago  but  that  the  Queen 
can  remember  it.  From  Hyde  Park  Cor- 
284 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

ner  her  route  lay  through  Piccadilly,  the 
street  that  took  its  name  from  a  French 
ruff  and  gave  it  to  a  collar,  and  then  down 
St.  James's  Street,  past  the  windows  of 
White's  and  Boodle's,  where  Fox,  Pitt, 
Sheridan,  and  Brummel  once  looked  out 
of  these  same  windows.  And  so  on  to 
St.  James's  Palace,  the  hospital  for  lepers 
which  Henry  VIII.  changed  into  a  royal 
residence,  and  where  to-day  the  Prince  of 
Wales  holds  levees  for  statesmen  and  diplo- 
mats on  the  spot  that  once  echoed  to  the 
cry  of  "  Unclean  !  unclean  !"  Then  past 
Marlborough  House,  that  took  its  name 
from  the  soldier  Duke  who  built  it,  be- 
tween the  "  sweet  shady "  sides  of  Pall 
Mall,  where  Nell  Gwynne  leaned  over  her 
garden  wall  and  held  her  celebrated  con- 
versation with  the  King  which  so  shocked 
Mr.  Pepys.  And  then,  waiting  for  the 
Queen  at  the  foot  of  Regent  Street,  the 
bronze  soldiers  who  commemorate  the  death 
of  thousands  of  others  who  died  for  her  in 

the  ice  and  snows  of  the  Crimea;  and,  a  few 

285 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

rods  beyond,  Trafalgar  Square,  with  Land- 
seer's  crouching  lions  watching  the  four 
corners  of  the  earth,  and  above  them  Nel- 
son, the  one-armed  sailor  who  died  for  the 
empire  in  the  cockpit  of  the  Victory,  and 
who  is  now  reared  high  above  the  beating 
heart  of  London  on  the  cannon  he  wrested 
from  the  French  war -ships  in  the  Nile; 
and  below  him  the  statue  to  Gordon,  who 
in  his  turn  gave  up  his  life  for  the  Queen, 
and  who  stands  now  as  immovable  in 
bronze  as  he  stood  for  so  many  months 
in  life,  when  he  looked  out  with  weary  eyes 
across  the  glaring  desert,  watching  for  the 
white  helmets  that  came  too  late.  From 
Trafalgar  Square,  where  the  blood  of  the 
regicides  is  marked  by  the  statue  of  the 
monarch  they  murdered,  the  procession 
was  directed  into  the  Strand,  past  the 
church  where  Falstaff  heard  the  bells  ring 
at  midnight,  and  so  on  to  Temple  Bar, 
where  the  Virgin  Queen,  many  years  be- 
fore, was  met  by  the  Lord  Mayor  of  that 

day  when  she  rode  into  the  city  to  cele- 
286 


THE    QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

brate  the  destruction  of  the  Armada; 
and  then  past  the  Temple  and  the  Law 
Courts,  the  home  of  the  Crusaders,  and 
later  of  Johnson,  Goldsmith,  and  Charles 
Lamb ;  past  Fetter  Lane  and  Fleet  Street, 
where  Pope  and  Addison  and  Steele  walked 
and  talked,  and  wrote  lampoons  on  each 
other  in  the  neighboring  coffee-shops. 

And  then,  after  the  solemn  halt  at  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  on  into  Cheapside,  where 
the  knights  once  rode  to  the  tourneys,  and 
where  Whittington  heard  the  bells  calling 
him  back  to  London ;  and  across  London 
Bridge,  that  used  to  hold  the  heads  of  the 
traitors ;  and  so  to  the  Surrey  side,  past 
the  Church  of  St.  Saviour,  the  resting-place 
of  Fletcher  and  Massinger;  and  into  the 
High  Street,  where  stood  the  Tabard  Inn 
of  Chaucer ;  and  then  past  the  Houses  of 
Parliament;  past  the  statue  of  Disraeli, 
who  first  taught  her  Majesty  to  spell  the 
word  Empire ;  and  the  Abbey,  the  grave- 
yard of  England's  greatest  dead;  into  White- 
hall, where  Charles  was  executed,  where  the 
287 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

horse-guards  sit  in  their  saddles  in  the 
narrow  doorways ;  and  so  back  again  to 
the  palace.  In  those  six  miles  the  Queen 
would  have  passed  over  earth  hallowed  by 
memories  of  men  so  great  that  queens  will 
be  remembered  because  they  reigned  while 
these  men  lived — men  whose  memories  will 
endure  for  so  many  years  that  a  monarch's 
"  longest  reign"  will  seem  but  an  hour  in 
the  vast  extent  of  their  immortality. 

When  the  sun  pushed  aside  the  mists  at 
ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  2 2d  of 
June,  it  saw  the  route  of  the  procession 
like  a  double  nought  or  a  crooked  eight, 
carved  on  the  sooty  surface  of  London. 
The  rest  of  the  city  was  busy  with  hurry- 
ing people,  and  soldiers  marching  at  a 
quickstep,  and  galloping  figures  on  horse- 
back, but  this  cleared  space  was  swept  and 
garnished  and  empty.  Looking  from  above 
it  was  as  though  the  people  living  on  the 
streets  that  formed  these  loops  had  over- 
slept themselves  and  did   not  know  that 

the  world  was  astir.     Looking  from    the 

288 


THE   QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

street,  you  saw  that  every  house  that  faced 
this  empty  highway  was  decorated  like  a 
box  in  a  theatre  when  royalty  is  expected 
to  be  present.  It  was  like  two  continuous 
walls  of  boxes  and  grandstands  facing  each 
other  for  six  miles ;  and  every  seat  was  tak- 
en and  there  were  people  in  the  windows 
peering  from  far  back  over  each  other's 
shoulders,  and  people  hanging  to  the  roofs, 
and  people  packed  on  the  sidewalks.  These 
people  cheered  the  sun  when  it  appeared, 
and  cheered  belated  cabs  when  the  police 
turned  them  back,  and  Sarah  Bernhardt 
when  they  allowed  her  to  pass  on.  They 
were  in  a  humor  to  cheer  anything;  they 
even  cheered  the  police.  And  when  at 
eleven  o'clock  the  cannon  in  Hyde  Park 
boomed  out  the  fact  that  the  Queen  had 
started  towards  them,  they  cheered  the 
cannon,  just  as  boys  in  the  gallery  applaud 
the  orchestra  when  they  appear — not  be- 
cause they  are  lovers  of  music,  but  because 
the  event  of  the  night  is  at  hand. 

As  the  Queen  was  leaving  Buckingham 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

Palace  she  stopped  and  pressed  an  electric 
button,  and  a  little  black  dot  appeared  on 
a  piece  of  paper  at  the  telegraph-office  at 
St.  Martin's-le-Grand.  This  was  the  signal 
that  the  message  for  which  the  cable  peo- 
ple had  been  keeping  the  wires  clear  was 
to  be  sent  on  its  way,  and  a  sealed  enve- 
lope that  had  been  awaiting  the  signal  was 
torn  open,  and  they  read  these  lines :  "  From 
my  heart  I  thank  my  beloved  people.  May 
God  bless  them  ! — Victoria,  R.  I." 

And  in  a  few  seconds  five  different 
cable  companies  were  transmitting  her 
Majesty's  message  to  forty  different  points 
in  her  empire ;  in  a  few  minutes  it  had 
passed  Suez  and  Aden  on  its  way  to  Simla, 
Singapore,  and  Hong-kong,  and  in  Central 
Africa  a  native  runner  set  forth  with  it  to 
Uganda ;  while  for  those  places  which  the 
cable  does  not  reach,  letters  carried  it  to 
the  islands  of  the  world.  The  first  answer 
was  received  from  Ottawa.  It  arrived  in 
sixteen  minutes,  and  before  the  Queen  had 

reached  London  Bridge  other  replies  had 
290 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

come  to  her  from  the  Cape,  from  the  Gold 
Coast,  and  from  Australia. 

The  procession  halted  in  three  places— 
at  the  entrance  to  the  City  in  the  Strand, 
where  Temple  Bar  once  stood ;  at  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral,  where  the  religious  cere- 
mony took  place;  and  at  the  Mansion 
House. 

At  the  entrance  to  the  City  the  Lord 
Mayor,  in  a  long  velvet  cloak,  presented 
her  Majesty  with  the  freedom  of  the  City, 
and  tendered  her  the  great  two  -  handed 
sword  as  a  symbol  of  allegiance.  The  Queen 
returned  it  by  touching  it  with  her  hand, 
and  the  Lord  Mayor  mounted  a  black 
horse,  and  managing  the  great  sword  and 
the  great  cloak  with  much  delight  to  him- 
self and  to  the  populace,  galloped  away. 
Lord  Roberts,  of  Kabul  and  Kandahar, 
was  the  only  other  official  who  recognized 
the  existence  of  the  invisible  barrier  that 
guards  the  entrance  to  the  City.  As  he 
reached  it  he  drew  up  and  saluted,  and 

then  rode  on ;  but  all  of  the  others,  with 
291 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

the  exception  of  the  men  of  one  company, 
rode  or  marched  into  the  City  without 
making  any  sign.  The  circumstance  was 
only  of  interest  because  on  ordinary  occa- 
sions soldiers  under  arms  may  not  march 
through  the  City  without  reversing  their 
guns,  and  every  night  one  can  see  the 
Household  troops  detailed  for  guard  duty 
at  the  Bank  of  England  tuck  their  guns 
under  their  arms  when  they  pass  the  line 
of  Temple  Bar.  The  one  exception  on 
the  day  of  the  Jubilee  was  the  men  of  the 
Royal  Marine  Artillery,  who  came  to  a 
halt  and  fixed  bayonets,  and  then  marched 
on  again.  This  they  did  because  their  or- 
ganization is  a  relic  of  the  old  train-bands 
of  the  City,  and  so  for  many  years  has  en- 
joyed the  privilege  of  marching  through 
it  with  fixed  bayonets.  It  was  essentially 
English  and  characteristic  for  one  com- 
pany to  halt  in  a  Jubilee  procession  in 
which  was  the  Queen,  with  many  of  the 
most  important  people  in  Europe,  simply 

that  they  might  assert  their  ancient  rights 
292 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

and  privileges,  even,  as  it  were,  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet. 

The  procession,  when  it  came,  was  dis- 
tinctly a  military  spectacle,  and  as  English 
people,  especially  the  inhabitants  of  Lon- 
don, are  used  to  soldiers,  the  presence  of 
the  Queen  and  the  part  played  in  it  by 
the  colonials  was  for  them  its  chief  inter- 
est. But  without  the  Queen  and  the  co- 
lonials, who  were  by  far  the  most  pictu- 
resque feature  of  the  procession,  there 
was  enough  to  repay  the  visiting  stran- 
ger for  his  journey,  no  matter  from  what 
distance  he  came.  The  procession  was 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  in  passing,  and 
the  test  of  its  interest  was  that  it  seemed 
to  have  appeared  and  disappeared  in  ten 
minutes.  There  was  a  blurred  vision  of 
close  ranks  of  great  horses  with  silken 
sides,  and  above  them  rows  of  mirror-like 
breastplates  and  helmets,  and  quivering 
pennants,  and  bands  of  music  with  a  drum- 
mer in  advance  of  each  throwing  himself 
recklessly  about  in  his  saddle,  and  pound- 
293 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

ing  alternately  on  two  silver  kettle-drums 
hung  with  gold-embroidered  cloths  as  rich 
as  an  archbishop's  robe.  There  was  artil- 
lery with  harness  of  russet  leather  that 
shone  like  glass,  and  blue-jackets  spread 
out  like  a  fan  and  dragging  brass  guns 
behind  them,  and  sheriffs  in  cloaks  of  fur 
with  gold  collars  and  chains,  and  Indian 
princes  as  straight  and  fine  as  an  un- 
sheathed sword,  in  colored  silk  turbans  of 
the  East,  and  gilded  chariots  filled  with 
poor  relations  from  Germany,  and  three  lit- 
tle princesses  in  white,  who  bowed  so  ener- 
getically that  one  of  them  fell  in  between 
the  seats  and  had  to  be  fished  out  again ; 
there  were  foreign  princes  from  almost 
every  country  except  Greece,  and  military 
attaches  in  as  varied  uniforms  as  there  are 
costumes  at  a  fancy  ball ;  and  there  was 
the  commander-in-chief  of  the  United 
States  army  riding  with  the  representative 
of  the  French  army,  and  Lieutenant  Cald- 
well of  our  navy  sitting  a  horse  as  calmly 
as  though  he  had  been  educated  at  West 
294 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

Point,  and  the  Hon.  Whitelaw  Reid  in 
evening  dress  riding  in  the  same  carriage 
with  the  Spanish  ambassador,  and  the  pa- 
pal nuncio  in  the  same  carriage  with  the 
ambassador  from  China. 

And  there  were  the  colonials.  The  co- 
lonial premiers  wore  gold  lace  and  white 
silk  stockings,  but  their  faces  showed  they 
were  men  who  had  fought  their  way  to 
the  top  in  new,  unsettled  countries,  and 
who  had  had  to  deal  with  problems  greater 
than  the  precedence  of  a  court.  And  sur- 
rounding each  of  them  were  the  picked 
men  of  his  country  who  had  helped  in 
their  humbler  way  to  solve  these  problems 
— big,  sunburned,  broad-shouldered  men 
in  wide  slouch  hats,  and  with  an  alert,  vig- 
ilant swagger  that  suggested  long,  lonely 
rides  in  the  bush  of  Australia  and  across 
the  veldt  of  South  Africa  and  through  the 
snows  of  Canada.  There  were  also  Dyaks 
from  Borneo,  with  the  scalps  of  their  for- 
mer enemies  neatly  sewn  to  their  scab- 
bards, even  though  they  did  follow  in  the 
295 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

wake  of  a  Christian  Queen ;  and  black  ne- 
groes in  zouave  uniforms  from  Jamaica; 
and  Hausas  from  the  Gold  Coast  who  had 
never  marched  on  asphalt  before,  and  who 
would  have  been  much  more  at  home  slip- 
ping over  fallen  tree  trunks  and  stealing 
through  a  swampy  jungle.  There  were 
police  from  British  Guiana,  and  Indians, 
and  even  Chinamen.  Central  America 
was  the  only  one  of  the  great  divisions  of 
the  world  that  was  not  represented,  and 
had  there  been  a  detachment  from  British 
Honduras,  there  would  have  been  march- 
ing in  that  parade  British  subjects  from 
North,  Central,  and  South  America,  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  Africa,  and  Australia,  and  from 
the  islands  that,  starting  at  Trinidad,  cir- 
cle the  globe  from  the  South  Atlantic  and 
Caribbean  Sea,  through  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  down  through 
the  South  Pacific,  and  back  again  past  the 
Falkland  Islands  to  Jamaica  and  Trinidad. 
The  three  millions  of  people  who  watch- 
ed the  procession  cheered  every  one  in  it, 
296 


THE    QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

from  Captain  "  Ossie "  Ames,  the  tallest 
officer  in  the  British  army,  who  was  not 
only  born  great,  but  who,  much  to  his  dis- 
tress, had  greatness  thrust  upon  him,  and 
who  rode  in  front,  to  the  police  who 
brought  up  the  rear. 

But  there  were  four  persons  in  the  pro- 
cession for  whom  the  cheering  was  so 
much  more  enthusiastic  than  for  any  of 
the  others  that  they  rode  apart  by  them- 
selves. These  were  the  Queen,  Lord  Rob- 
erts, Lieutenant-Colonel  the  Hon.  Maurice 
Gifford,  and  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier. 

Lord  Wolseley,  the  commander-in-chief, 
was  not  so  well  received  as  Lord  Roberts, 
and  suffered  on  account  of  his  position, 
which  was  immediately  in  front  of  the 
Queen ;  so  no  one  had  time  to  look  at 
him  nor  to  cheer  him.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  was  also  too  near  the  throne  to  re- 
ceive his  accustomed  share  of  attention, 
and  some  of  the  other  favorites  passed  so 
quickly  that  the  crowd  failed  to  recognize 

them.     But   everybody   seemed    to   know 

297 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

Lord  Roberts  and  his  white  Arab  pony 
that  carried  him  during  his  ride  of  nine- 
teen days  from  Kabul  to  Kandahar,  and 
no  one  in  that  procession  knew  better  than 
that  pony,  with  his  six  war  medals  hanging 
from  his  breast-band  or  strap,  what  a  great 
day  it  was.  The  crowd  saluted  the  hero 
of  Kandahar  as  "  Bobs,"  and  cried  "  God 
bless  you,  Bobs !"  and  every  now  and  then 
during  a  halt  the  general  would  ride  up 
and  speak  to  some  soldier  in  the  line 
who  had  served  with  him  in  India,  and  so 
make  him  happy. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Gifford  was  popular 
for  two  reasons — in  the  first  place,  he  com- 
manded the  Rhodesian  Horse,  and  that 
body,  as  has  been  previously  suggested, 
was  the  one  associated  in  the  minds  of  the 
English  with  the  Chartered  Company  and 
the  Matabele  war  and  Dr.  Jameson's  raid, 
and  the  next  raid  which  it  seems  now  must 
inevitably  follow.  And  besides  the  fact 
that  he  led  this  body  of  rough  riders,  he 

had  lost  an  arm  in  the  last  Matabele  war, 

298 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

and  his  sleeve  was  pinned  across  his  chest, 
and  he  received  his  reward  that  day  for 
losing  it.  His  reception  seemed  to  show 
what  sympathy  the  man  in  the  street  had 
with  the  Parliamentary  investigation  of 
the  Chartered  Company's  actions  in  South 
Africa. 

The  enthusiasm  over  Sir  Wilfrid  Lau- 
rier  was  probably  due  to  his  position  as 
premier  of  Canada,  and  to  the  picturesque 
fact  that  he  is  a  Frenchman  by  descent, 
and  that  his  face  is  so  strong  and  fine  that 
he  was  easily  recognized  by  his  portraits. 
Next  to  these  four  in  the  hearts  of  the 
crowd,  on  that  day  at  least,  were  the  Ind- 
ian princes,  the  Lord  Mayor,  Lord  Charles 
Beresford,  and  all  the  colonial  troops. 

The  street  that  opens  into  the  oval  of 

St.  Paul's  Cathedral  breaks  in  two  just  in 

front  of  the  cathedral,  and  passes  by  on 

either   side.     In    the   open  space  that  is 

formed  by  this  parting  of  the  highways  is 

a  statue  of  Queen  Anne,  which  is  shut  off 

from  the  street  by  an  iron  railing.     The 
299 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

Queen's  carriage,  with  the  eight  cream- 
colored  ponies,  came  up  Ludgate  Hill  and 
turned  to  the  left  and  then  to  the  right, 
and  stopped  in  front  of  the  steps  to  the 
cathedral;  the  foreign  princes,  on  horse- 
back, grouped  themselves  in  front  of  the 
statue,  and  the  enamelled  and  gilded  lan- 
daus of  the  special  ambassadors  and  of 
the  princesses  formed  en  echelon  along  the 
roadway  to  the  right.  Beyond  these  were 
circles  of  the  Household  troops  in  red 
coats  and  bear- skins,  and  contingents  of 
soldiers  from  the  far  East,  from  India, 
Africa,  and  China. 

Rising  from  the  lowest  step  of  the  ca- 
thedral was  a  great  tribune  separated  into 
three  parts,  and  back  of  this,  red-covered 
balconies  hung  between  the  great  black 
pillars  like  birds'  nests  in  the  branches  of 
a  tree.  Below  them  the  vast  tribune  shone 
with  colored  silk  and  gold  cloth,  and  ra- 
diated with  jewels  like  a  vast  bank  of  beau- 
tiful flowers.     Among  these  flowers  were 

Indian    princes   in    coats    sewn    with   dia- 

300 


THE   QUEEN  S   JUBILEE 

monds  that  hid  them  in  flashes  of  light, 
archbishops  and  bishops  in  robes  of  gold 
that  suggested  those  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  ambassadors  in  stars  and  sashes, 
with  their  official  families  in  gold  braid 
and  decorations.  In  the  centre  was  a  great 
mass  of  smiling-faced  choir-boys,  like  cher- 
ubs in  night-gowns,  and  two  hundred  mu- 
sicians picked  from  bands  of  many  regi- 
ments and  wearing  many  uniforms.  On 
the  lowest  steps  were  dignitaries  of  the 
Church  in  the  pink  and  crimson  capes  the 
different  universities  had  bestowed  upon 
them,  and  the  Bishop  of  Finland,  the  rep- 
resentative of  Russia,  and  the  Bishop  of 
New  York,  and,  what  was  perhaps  the  most 
striking  example  of  the  all-embracing  nat- 
ure of  the  celebration,  a  captain  from  the 
Salvation  Army  with  his  red  ribbon  around 
his  cap.  There  were  judges  in  wigs  and 
black  silk  gowns,  and  Chinamen  in  robes 
of  colored  silk,  and  Turkish  envoys  in 
fezes,   and    Persian  envoys  in  Astrakhan 

caps.    There  were  individuals  in  this  group 
301 


THE   QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

who  on  most  occasions  take  the  centre  of 
the  stage  at  any  gathering  and  hold  it  for 
hours,  but  on  this  great  day  they  were 
only  spectators,  and  had  not  as  much  to 
do  in  the  celebration  as  had  one  of  the 
soldiers  that  lined  the  street. 

Lord  Salisbury,  Mr.  Balfour,  Joseph 
Chamberlain,  and  Sir  William  Harcourt 
were  among  these,  and  there  was  also 
our  ambassador,  the  Hon.  John  Hay,  and 
the  secretaries  of  his  embassy,  which,  as 
a  whole,  is  perhaps  the  best  embassy  our 
country  or  any  other  country  has  sent  to 
the  Court  of  St.  James.  And  there  were 
rows  of  Beef-eaters  in  the  costume  of  the 
Tudors,  and  Bluecoat  Boys  in  the  costume 
of  Edward  VI. 

The  ceremony  that  followed  upon  the 

arrival  of  the  Queen  was  a  very  simple 

one,  but  it  was  the  most  impressive  one 

that   could   have    been    selected   for   that 

moment  in  the  history  of  the  Empire.     It 

consisted  of  the  Te  Deum,  the  National 

Anthem,  and  the   Doxology.     That  is  a 
302 


THE   QUEEN'S  JUBILEE 

difficult  selection  to  surpass  at  any  time, 
and  especially  when  the  three  are  sung 
from  the  hearts  of  ten  thousand  people. 

The  Te  Deum  was  given  to  music  writ- 
ten for  the  occasion,  and  the  National 
Anthem,  had  it  not  been  already  written, 
would  have  been  inspired  by  that  occasion, 
and  the  Doxology  was  probably  sung  as  it 
was  never  sung  before.  When  the  Jaenes- 
ville  miners  were  rescued  alive  from  the 
pit  after  they  had  been  entombed  there 
and  given  up  for  dead  for  eighteen  days, 
their  rescuers  and  all  the  mining  popula- 
tion of  Jaenesville  marched  to  the  house 
of  the  owner  of  the  mines  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and,  standing  in  the  snow, 
sang  the  Doxology,  and  a  man  who  was 
there  told  me  he  hid  himself  in  the  house 
and  cried.  If  he  had  been  at  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  he  would  have  had  to  hide  him- 
self again,  for  there  were  ten  thousand 
people  singing,  "  Praise  God  from  Whom 
all  blessings  flow,"  as  loudly  as  they  could, 
and  with  tears  running  down  their  faces. 
303 


THE    QUEEN'S   JUBILEE 

There  were  princesses  standing  up  in  their 
carriages,  and  black  men  from  the  Gold 
Coast,  Maharajahs  from  India,  and  red- 
coated  Tommys,  and  young  men  who  will 
inherit  kingdoms  and  empires,  and  arch- 
bishops, and  cynical  old  diplomats,  and 
soldiers  and  sailors  from  the  "land  of  the 
palm  and  the  pine "  and  from  the  seven 
seas,  and  women  and  men  who  were  just 
subjects  of  the  Queen  and  who  were  con- 
tent with  that.  There  was  probably  never 
before  such  a  moment,  in  which  so  many 
races  of  people,  of  so  many  castes,  and  of 
such  different  values  to  this  world,  sang 
praises  to  God  at  one  time,  and  in  one 
place,  and  with  one  heart.  And  when  it 
was  all  over,  and  the  cannon  at  the  Tower 
were  booming  across  the  water-front,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  of  all  the  people 
in  the  world,  waved  his  arm  and  shouted, 
"  Three  cheers  for  the  Queen !"  and  the 
soldiers  stuck  their  bear -skins  on  their 
bayonets  and  swung  them  above  their 
heads  and  cheered,  and  the  women  on  the 
304 


THE    QUEEN  S  JUBILEE 

house-tops  and  balconies  waved  their  hand- 
kerchiefs and  cheered,  and  the  men  beat 
the  air  with  their  hats  and  cheered,  and  the 
Lady  in  the  Black  Dress  nodded  and  bowed 
her  head  at  them,  and  winked  away  the 
tears  in  her  eyes. 


THE   END 


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